Cobalt discovery

Ocean mining as a source of general prosperity was a prospect first broached by General de Gaulle as a sort of consola tion prize for the Polynesians.

The general raised the subject during his 1966 visit to Tahiti en route to Moruroa.

To make the dream come true, French research vessels were soon combing the ocean floor and hauling up batches of nodules containing varying amounts of cobalt, manganese, copper and iron.

By the early ’Bos, however, it was becoming apparent that the richest lodes existed not, as had been hoped, inside the French-controlled 200 mile FEZ of the territory’s 118 is lands but in international waters to the north.

It was therefore a big sensa tion in Papeete when the local Minister for Marine Resources, Mr Alexandre Leontieff

announced that rich exploitable deposits of cobalt an impor tant element in steel alloys had been discovered on the outer slopes of several unidenti fied atolls in the Tuamotu archi pleago east of Tahiti at a depth of 1,000 to 2,000 metres.

The discovery, he said, had been made in February by the research vessel Charcot but had been kept secret until the beginning of last month.

Pro independence leaders immediately pointed out that the cobalt crusts are located in territorial waters and are there fore the property of the local government as opposed to the Paris government, in accord ance with the Law of the Sea Treaty.

The crusts have the potential to make the territory financially independent of France with obvious political consequences.

Marie Therese and Bengt

Danielsson.