deposits

Easter Islands

Mineral

A team of scientists from Chile and Germany is to search the sea-bed off Chile’s Easter Island for deposits of iron, copper and other minerals which are known to exist there. The deposits have been created by undersea volcanic activity and were discovered 10 years ago by a team from the German Institute of Geological Sciences and Natural Resources.

Some of the samples taken at the time were almost pure. The new survey will be to map out deposits which could be of commercial significance. A spokesman for the institute said many governments were eager to engage in deep-sea mining.

He said requests for mineral concessions elsewhere in the Pacific had already been made by France, Germany, Russia and Japan.