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We believe the key to a sustainable future may lie in the deepest part of the ocean
CIC is focused on mineral and environmental research relating to polymetallic nodules in the deep abyssal plain of the Cook Islands EEZ.
The critical minerals found there could provide an important resource for the Cook Islands people and the world.
Congratulations to our Cook Islands participants on joining this 21-Day Deep Sea Habitats of the Cook Islands Expedition (1-21 October 2025), aboard the world-class research vessel E/V Nautilus.
CIC congratulates the Cook Islands and U.S. on their seabed minerals cooperation agreement, backing science-led research, environmental safeguards, and capacity-building for responsible development in the EEZ.
"The sea represents as much to the people of small Pacific Islands as the land...the discovery and extraction of minerals from the seabed around our Islands may become a possibility. In the event of that possibility becoming a reality, it would be only fair and just for the Cook Islands to receive the benefits from the seabed."
Sir Albert Henry
First Prime Minister of the Cook Islands
- 3rd Law of the Sea Conference, 1974