(Yicai) July 10 -- The deep-sea mining vehicle developed by Shanghai Jiao Tong University has successfully completed deep-sea trials, setting six new records in China's deep-sea mining field.

"This marks the first time a Chinese deep-sea heavy-loaded mining vehicle has operated at depths exceeding 4,000 meters, and it set six new domestic records in the deep-sea mining field," said Yang Jianmin, chief scientist of the sea trials and professor at SJTU's School of Ocean and Civil Engineering.

Pioneer II carried out five explorations and mining operations, including one at a depth of more than 4,000 meters under the sea and four at depths of over 2,000 meters, and retrieved more than 200 kilograms of polymetallic nodules, crusts, and bedrock samples from the seafloor.

Pioneer II has the ability to effectively and steadily collect deep-sea ores and quickly distinguish bedrocks from crusts, said Huang Wei, deputy director of the deep-sea geology and minerals department of the Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, who participated in the Pioneer II trials.

The four-ton vehicle can operate efficiently both on steep 30-degree slopes and soft sediment areas, ensuring smooth mining operations, Yang told Yicai.

Shanghai is the only Chinese city that integrates research, development, manufacturing, testing, and port machinery construction in the naval architecture and marine engineering field. The innovative R&D of deep-sea mineral resource extraction technologies and equipment is of great significance to the advancement of Shanghai as a science and technology innovation center.

Some of the technologies used in the Pioneer II trial were developed by SJTU in collaboration with enterprises. Moving forward, there might also be some technological breakthroughs to promote industrial development.

Editor: Futura Costaglione