全球深海矿产资源开发进展与启示——以装备技术为核心

Development of Equipment Technology for Exploitation of Marine Mineral Resources

随着全球战略性新兴产业的快速发展,钴、镍、锰、锂等关键矿产的需求急剧增加,这些矿产在新能源、电子产业及国防安全等领域中扮演着不可或缺的角色,深海矿产资源具有重大战略价值,同时这些资源开发过程还带动深海科技和产业向更高层次发展,对提升国家海洋开发与探测能力具有重要意义。在全球深海矿产资源开发过程中,装备技术具有核心作用。自20世纪60年代起,发达国家在深海矿产资源的开发管理体制、勘探装备、开发平台和开采作业装备等方面持续突破,强化了本国大洋事务管理体系,发展了海底钻探技术、深海采矿平台技术、环境影响评估技术等,部分国家已经完成了多项海上采矿试验,展示了主导国际海底采矿标准规则制定的能力。我国自20世纪90年代起显著提升了海底资源开发相关的行政管理能力和法治建设水平,积极参与了国际海底矿区勘探和申请工作。“十二五”迄今,我国相继完成从500米到4000米海试的采矿车单体试验,为下一步工作奠定了坚实基础。但是,相较于国外发达国家,我国仍然存在较大差距,主要体现为基础研究不足、核心技术装备验证与研发能力有限、关键元器件自主研发能力欠缺、全系统联合海试与商业化开采方案缺失,以及环境友好型装备研发与环境评估滞后等。面向即将到来的深海采矿时代,我国应加强对深海矿产资源开发的战略研究,加大技术创新力度,加快推进深海采矿装备技术体系发展,培育深海高技术装备产业,拓展我国深海活动的利益空间。

With the rapid development of global strategic emerging industries,the demand for critical miner-als such as cobalt,nickel,manganese and lithium has soared,rendering deep-sea mineral resources of sig-nificant exploitation value.Simultaneously,the exploitation of seabed mineral resources will drive the ad-vancement of deep-sea technology and industry to a higher level,enhancing a country's marine development and exploration capabilities.This paper delves into the progress of global deep-sea mineral resource exploi-tation,with a particular focus on the pivotal role of equipment technology in this process.Since the 1960s,developed countries have made continuous breakthroughs in the management systems,exploration equip-ment,development platforms,and mining operation equipment for deep-sea mineral resources,thereby strengthening their management systems of ocean affairs and developing seabed drilling technology,deep-sea mining platform technology,and technology of environmental impact assessment.Some countries have already completed multiple offshore mining tests,demonstrating their ability to lead the formulation of inter-national seabed mining standards and rules.China has rapidly improved its administrative management ca-pabilities and the level of legal construction related to seabed resource development since the 1990s,active-ly participating in the exploration and application for international seabed mining areas.Since the 12th Five-Year Plan period,China has successively completed the individual tests of mining vehicles ranging from 500 meters to 4000 meters in sea trials,laying a solid foundation for the next stage of work.However,compared with foreign developed countries,China remains behind them because it has inadequate fundamental re-search,limited capabilities for verification and research and development(R&D)of core technological e-quipment,a lack of independent R&D capabilities for key components,the absence of full-system joint sea trials and commercial mining solutions,and the lag in the R&D of environmentally friendly equipment and environmental assessments.Having seen the upcoming era of deep-sea mining,China should strengthen strategic research on the exploitation of deep-sea mineral resources,intensify technological innovation,ac-celerate the development of a technological system for deep-sea mining equipment,foster a high-tech equip-ment industry for deep-sea exploration,and expand China's interests in deep-sea activities.