Why Mauritius wants Chagos
Mauritius has long dreamed of the mineral wealth on the seafloor of the Chagos Archipelago.
When it became known in the early 1980s that Chagos lies in an area of the Indian Ocean adjacent to a region where large deposits of rare-earth metals and minerals had been found, the Mauritius government set up a select committee to look into the issue.
At the time the expense, legal difficulties, and with the technology in its infancy, deep-mining wasn’t truly viable.
However, by the start of the new century, due to advances in the technologies, and the growing demand and value of rare-earth metals and minerals, deep-sea mining was once again exciting interest.
That’s why Mauritius has spent many millions of dollars on lawyers to own the Chagos Archipelago, which covers 250,000 squares miles (the size of France).
These videos reveal what could be in store for the Chagos marine protection zone.
The Indian government is pursuing deep-sea mineral exploration in the Central Indian Ocean Basin. The Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences has launched the Deep Ocean Mission to explore polymetallic nodules and polymetallic sulphides in this region, which includes the Chagos Archipelago.
The Chagos Archipelago lies in a region of the ocean rich in polymetallic nodules of copper, nickel, cobalt, & manganese.
Mauritius has not spent £millions on lawyers like Philippe Sands just to police a marine protection zone the size of France a 1,000 miles away.
Journal of Geophysical Prospecting
