§ Mr. Dykesasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps he is taking to encourage United Kingdom participation in deep-sea mining for manganese nodules.
§ Mr. ChatawayI have offered two United Kingdom companies, Rio Tinto Zinc and Consolidated Gold Fields Ltd., up to £830,000 towards their participation in an international consortium to examine manganese nodule deposits on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. The assistance will be repaid if the project 75W leads to commercial production, and in addition the companies have agreed that United Kingdom consumers will have the first option to purchase a proportion of any metals produced by the consortium. This project, therefore, not only provides an opportunity for United Kingdom companies to break into a new technology but in the longer term could give United Kingdom consumers access to a new source of metals—copper, nickel and cobalt.