Secretary-General Nii Odunton was one of two keynote speakers at the Symposium on Deep Seabed Mining – A Challenging Technological & Resource Potential for the German Economy held on 19 June at the Ministry of Federal Economics in Berlin.
In his opening address, Secretary-General Odunton said he saw Germany as one of the first rank of States that could provide technology for environmentally sound mining of marine mineral resources.
Also addressing the symposium was Federal Government Coordinator of the Maritime Industry and Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Hans-Joachim Otto, who stated that marine mineral resources could make a solid contribution to the supply of metallic raw materials in the medium term and with the increasing worldwide interest in deep seabed mining in recent years, Germany wanted to seize the opportunities offered at an early stage.
Mr Otto said German companies had great expertise in maritime technology and were in an excellent position to develop the necessary innovative systems for deep seabed mining.
The symposium hosted 160 participants from business, government and science discussed possibilities and prospects of the extraction of marine mineral resources as well as the latest global developments in deep seabed mining.
The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) has been exploring mineral deposits in the German license area in the Central Pacific since 2006.
Secretary-General Nii A Odunton