(Yicai Global) Jan. 24 -- A research institute in China has developed an undersea test mining vehicle that will prospect for submarine ores in the Northwest Pacific this year, China Mining newspaper reported.

The test vehicle, developed by the Undersea Mining Research Institute of Changsha Mine Research Institute Co., can operate to depths of 4,000 meters. It conducts real-time online tests of the terrain of undersea cobalt-rich crusts, measures the thickness of ore bodies and collects samples. The gathering of deep-sea cobalt-rich crusts is a key technology in commercially exploiting undersea cobalt resources.

This test vehicle will deploy for the first time to China's cobalt-rich crust contract area in the Northwest Pacific, where it will carry out onsite acoustic thickness measurement and collect samples by the ton, thereby verifying the technical feasibility of mining deep-sea deposits of the element.

China signed an exploration contract with the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in 2014. This granted it the right to explore in an area of 3,000 square kilometers in the sea mountains of the region. The ISA gave China 15 years for exploration, and China must achieve the exploitation of two of the one-third sections of the total exploration area by the agreement's 8th and 10th year to not relinquish the priority mining rights to this 1,000 square-kilometer expanse of sea floor.