OREANDA-NEWS. Experts of JSC Sevmorgeo (St Petersburg, part of the Rosgeologia state holding company) are completing deep-water drilling operations in the Pacific Ocean.

The Company is a subcontractor of FSUGE Southern Scientific & Production Association for Marine Geological Operations (Yuzhmorgeologia), which concluded a state contract with the Department of Subsea Use of the Continental Shelf and World Ocean (Morgeo) for surveying in the ore district of the Magellan seamounts of the Pacific Ocean on exploration sites allocated to the Russian Federation by the International Seabed Authority.

According to Yuri Kuzmin, Chief Engineer of JSC Sevmorgeo, “The purpose of the works performed by Sevmorgeo is to drill samples of cobalt-bearing manganese crust for analysis of its ore constituent content. Cobalt-bearing crusts are a new type of ocean mineral deposit, such as ore with a high content of cobalt, manganese and a number of other commercial components.”

Drilling has been performed at a depth of from 1,500 to 4,000 metres in sub-horizontal parts of the ocean bed from the Gelendzhik research vessel, using a unique deep-water drilling technology by means of GBU-1/4000 deep-sea drilling rigs developed by Sevmorgeo experts. JSC Sevmorgeo is the only Russian company designing deep-sea drilling rigs. These are produced jointly with JSC Sredne-Nevskiy Shipyard of St -Petersburg being one of the country’s largest shipyards.