Our Ocean Research
in the Cook Islands
On February 23, 2022, CIC Limited (CIC) received an Exploration License from the Cook Islands Government to explore an area within its Exclusive Economic Zone under the Seabed Minerals Act. 
License Area Overview ​
The CIC Polymetallic Nodules Exploration Project is situated offshore within the Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Cook Islands EEZ covers approximately 2 million km  in the South Pacific. The area of exploration license EL1 held by CIC is roughly 200,000 km. Within this, the primary area of interest for this study is located offshore at abyssal depths, 300–600 km from the main island of Rarotonga and more than 50 nautical miles away from any island in the nation. New Zealand is 3,400 km towards the southwest, while the U.S. island state of Hawai’i is 4,600 km north of Rarotonga. 
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Estimated Nodule Resource
Cook Islands Polymetallic Nodule Deposit Estimate. The Seabed Minerals Authority (SBMA) of the Cook Islands commissioned RSC Geological Consultants  to undertake a mineral resource estimate for a polymetallic nodules deposit located in the Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and to prepare a technical report to summarize the results in accordance with JORC Code 2012. Per this report, EEZ of the Cook Islands is estimated to possess 6.7 billion tonnes of polymetallic nodules, typically located on top of the sediment at around 20 – 30kg/m . 
 
JORC Assessments completed to date suggest
that the CIC License Area contains:
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7.7 million tons of cobalt
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5.7 million tons of nickel
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3.2 million tons of copper
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267 million tons of manganese
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2.5 million tons of rare earth elements
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Significant amounts of other metals
including titanium and iron 
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​Key Comparisons:
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The Cook Islands nodules have higher Co and lower Ni compared to CCZ nodules. 
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The Cook Islands EEZ is projected to hold more cobalt than all known global terrestrial cobalt reserves.
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