Abstract
The Government of Japan and South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) have been conducting joint surveys of deep-sea mineral resources in the Exclusive Economy Zones (EEZs) of SOPAC member countries, since 1985. The various research and government institutions that have been closely involved in this long-standing program include: the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) and Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) which is the former Metal Mining Agency of Japan (MMAJ) and relevant ministries of the participating Pacific Island government. The survey program is on-going using research vessel Hakurei-Maru No.2 which belongs to JOGMEC. This twenty year long, joint project initiative has been extremely successful in confirming the resource potential of the Pacific region through discovering valuable deep-sea mineral resources such as polymetallic nodules in the Cook Islands waters, cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts in the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Federated States of Micronesia, and polymetallic sulphides in the Fiji waters.
