Cook Islands is set to gain a deeper understanding of seabed mining through expert discussions and knowledge sharing at the 52nd Underwater Minerals Conference held at the National Auditorium.

According to its technical chair, John C. Wiltshire, the goal of the conference, which has brought about 250 scientists from across the world, is to help Cook Islands gain more knowledge on seabed mining.

The four-day conference that ends tomorrow is the world’s largest gathering of ocean mineral stakeholders.

In an interview with Cook Islands News, Wiltshire said the conference was discussing topics presented by various experts on the vastness of the country’s water resources.

“What we really want to get out of the conference is to kind of help the Cook Islands and share with the seabed authority here and the Prime Minister and the people of the Cook Islands what some of the international scientific experts think and the way that they see this sort of moving forward and to kind of encourage collaboration,” Wiltshire said.

“During the first two days, we looked at some of the technological breakthroughs, some of the developments of the companies and their interests, some of the ways that they’ve been involving participation from the people of the Cook Islands, some of the major international interest, and the vastness of the resource that’s in the waters around the Cook Islands.”

According to Wiltshire, the annual conference has been a resounding success, with a record-breaking number of attendees, including 250 scientists and others.

“This is the second day and I would say it's wonderful. A lot of participation from, I think, 30 different countries so we're extremely pleased,” he said yesterday.

“We were worried that coming to the Cook Islands, being so remote, that people from other countries wouldn’t come so much but that has absolutely not been the case.

“They’ve just arrived here in droves and are incredibly impressed with the very, very warm hospitality and wonderful environment of this place.

Wiltshire is also the director of Hawai’i Undersea Research Laboratory, a regional undersea research programme within the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at University of Hawai’i.

Cook Islands is in the third year of a five-year exploration phase to determine the feasibility of deep-sea mining for polymetallic nodules. Three companies have been granted licence and access to the nation’s waters to see if mining is a viable option.

The Seabed Minerals Authority has reiterated that the Cook Islands government has not yet decided whether it will support harvesting (or mining).