(Yicai Global) July 17 -- A state-backed Chinese company has won the country's fifth permit to explore the seabed in international waters, but this time closer to home than ever before.

The International Seabed Authority approved Pioneer High-tech Development's plan to exclusively explore a 74,000 square kilometer area in the Western Pacific Ocean for polymetallic nodules, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the Ministry of Natural Resources. The approval came during a meeting of the authority on July 15 in Jamaica.

The Beijing-based firm, which was founded in 1993 and is affiliated with the natural resources ministry, submitted two such plans of about equal commercial value. The second will be in an area reserved by the ISA.

China began exploring the seabed in the 1970s and since then has secured licenses to search for polymetallic nodules in two exploration areas, polymetallic sulphide in another location and cobalt-rich crust in a fourth.

Editor: James Boynton