India’s advancements in deep-sea mining, propelled by the Deep Ocean Mission, focus on the development of homegrown technology such as the Matsya-6000 submersible. This initiative has reached significant milestones in the exploration of polymetallic nodules and sulphides, while also obtaining international contracts for essential minerals including cobalt, nickel, copper, and manganese. These resources are critical for the nation’s blue economy and energy transition, highlighted by achievements in deep-sea trials and resource mapping.

India’s efforts in exploration are directed towards securing crucial minerals and diversifying its economy, prompted by the diminishing terrestrial reserves of metals such as nickel and cobalt, which are essential for renewable energy technologies and electronics. This exploration enhances self-sufficiency in line with the “Atmanirbhar Bharat” initiative, thereby decreasing reliance on imports. The “Deep Ocean Mission,” associated with India’s Blue Economy policy, aims to sustainably utilize ocean resources to enhance GDP through marine industries. Potential energy resources like gas hydrates found on the seabed provide a long-term solution for India's growing energy needs.

Alongside severe threats such as irreversible damage to fragile ecosystems, loss of biodiversity, noise and light pollution that interferes with marine organisms, the discharge of toxic metals, the disturbance of carbon sinks, and potential governance conflicts, India’s deep-sea mining initiatives encounter considerable technological, financial, and regulatory challenges. Detractors raise concerns regarding the sustainability and ethical implications of extracting deep-sea resources prior to fully comprehending the consequences.

A comprehensive approach is needed to advance sustainable deep-sea mining in the Indian Ocean. This includes developing cutting-edge, eco-friendly technologies, implementing strict international regulations through the ISA, conducting thorough Environmental Impact Assessments and biodiversity studies, strengthening marine science capacity building, aligning with the Blue Economy, and participating in international collaboration for unified standards and technology exchange.——Debashis Nandy, Kazi Nazrul Islam University, India.

India wishes to be a world leader in deep-sea mining. India’s aspirations to be the third largest economy in the world by 2030 coincide with exploration into the deep-ocean as well. India has secured sea-bed mining rights from the International Sea bed Authority and embarked on technical trials and advances in blue-bio technology for scientific explorations at sea and exploitation of commercially viable mineral deposits. In September 2025, India became the first nation to hold two active contracts from the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for exploring Polymetallic Sulphides (PMS) in the Indian Ocean. 

India’s first manned deep-sea submersible, (Samudrayaan Mission) MATSYA 6000, is undergoing phased trials. Successful wet tests and integrated functionality demonstrations with three human crew members were completed in early 2025. India is aiming to conduct full-depth crewed missions to 6000 meters depth by 2027, making India a rare country to have this capability. In August 2025, Indian aquanauts completed preparatory training dives to 5,002 meters in the Atlantic Ocean in collaboration with France’s IFREMER. 

The main driving forces behind India’s deep-sea mining exploration in the Indian Ocean are a combination of economic needs for critical minerals, the pursuit of technological self-reliance, and strategic geopolitical positioning in the Indo-Pacific region.

India wishes to be self-reliant in minerals such as rare-earth ones. The Indian Ocean seabed contains vast deposits of polymetallic nodules and sulphides rich in: Nickel, Cobalt, Copper, Manganese, Rare earth elements. India is heavily import-dependent for many of these strategic minerals. Access to its own deep-sea reserves in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (an area of 75,000 sq km allotted by the International Seabed Authority) could significantly enhance its resource security and meet future energy requirements. Hence the ocean has become the new and next frontier for exploitation of minerals for India.

Some of the negative impacts of India’s deep-sea mining activities on the Indian Ocean could include: 

Habitat Destruction: Direct contact by mining equipment, such as the Varaha seabed system, can crush organisms and destroy habitats for endemic species that may not exist elsewhere.

Sediment Plumes: Digging stirs up fine particles, creating plumes that can travel for kilometers. These smother seafloor life, clog the feeding apparatus of filter-feeders, and disrupt food webs in mid-water zones.

Pollution: Noise and artificial light in naturally dark, silent environments disrupt the communication, navigation, and feeding of marine mammals (like whales) and fish.

Carbon Sink Disruption: Disturbance of the seafloor may interfere with the ocean’s “biological pump,” potentially releasing stored carbon and reducing its ability to mitigate climate change.

Extreme Pressure: At these depths, pressure exceeds 380 atmospheres, requiring specialized materials like titanium alloys. High-profile incidents, such as the 2023 Titan implosion, underscore the risks of structural failure.

Complex Logistics: Maintaining a 6,000m flexible riser pipe to pump mineral slurry to the surface requires immense power (approx. 1 MW/hour) and faces significant friction and potential leakage.

Equipment Durability: Saltwater is highly corrosive, and the soft, muddy ocean floor makes it difficult for heavy tracked vehicles like Varaha to maneuver.

Communication Gaps: Standard radio waves do not work underwater; India must rely on costly, specialized acoustic technologies (VLF/ELF) which are still being developed.

Regulatory Uncertainty: The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has yet to finalize a commercial “Mining Code,” leading to legal ambiguities for future exploitation. Now there is Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) which will come into force in the near future and India need to abide by this convention and the ISA guidelines too.

Sovereignty Disputes: India’s interest in cobalt-rich sites has sparked tensions with neighbors, particularly Sri Lanka, over overlapping maritime claims, especially when the outer limit of the continental margin is agreed upon by the United Nations.

Promoting sustainable deep-sea mining in the Indian Ocean requires a strong, science-based approach focusing on rigorous environmental assessments, implementing advanced mitigation technologies (like sediment containment), establishing ‘Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)’, strengthening the International Seabed Authority (ISA) regulations, fostering international collaboration, and investing in research and monitoring to balance economic goals with marine conservation. This includes strict adherence to the evolving ISA Mining Code, BBJN Convention, continuous real-time monitoring, and developing national frameworks for ecological safeguards.——Jayanath Colombage, Sri Lanka Navy, Sri Lanka.

India has also made great progress in the exploration of deep-sea mining in the Indian Ocean compared to some countries in the world that are well developed in the seabed. The most notable achievement is the exploration of the success of the polymetallic nodules in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB), which is assigned to India by the International Seabed Authority (ISA). These nodules are manganese-rich, nickel-rich, cobalt-rich, and copper-rich, which are strategic to the industry and clean-energy technologies.

India has developed local deep-sea technologies as small projects under its Deep Ocean Mission, including the design and trial of the man-in-the-deep-water submersible Matsya 6000, which can dive to a depth of 6,000 meters.

The primary causes, which have necessitated the deep-sea mining exploration process in the Indian Ocean, are strategic resource security, technological ambition, and geopolitics. India wants to reduce its dependence on external supply chains that supply clean power and advanced production.

Deep-sea exploration is also congruent with the vision of the Blue Economy and enhances the native Indian scientific and technological expertise. Increased Indian Ocean operations also enhance the Indian sea power and strategic independence in the emerging great-power rivalry in the region.

India has been facing several environmental, technical, and governance-related issues regarding the Indian Ocean deep-sea mining exploration. Polymetallic nodules mining poses environmental hazards to the fragile deep-sea ecosystems, which are poorly comprehended and recover slowly. The resulting sediment plumes may cover the benthic organisms and disrupt the higher marine food webs. Critics also have scientific uncertainty, and this is because the baseline ecological data are insufficient to enable making accurate judgments of long-term effects.

The environmentalists and civil society organizations argue that the quest to ensure security in India regarding the resources may be overrunning precautionary protection, casting uncertainty on the sustainability, transparency, and balancing of the economic ambition and ocean protection.

The exploration of sustainable deep-sea mining in the Indian Ocean should be enabled with a prudent precaution strategy that would develop a balance between demands on resources and the environment. It involves a great deal of research based on open environmental analysis and strict regulation in the international system, such as the International Seabed Authority.——Sujit Kumar Datta, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh.

<RCAS Report-India’s Deep-sea Mining>