China can now search the international seabed for three valuable minerals after a new exploration contract was signed in Beijing by the China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association (COMRA) and the International Seabed Authority (ISA). Under the contract, China has exclusive right to explore an initial area of 3,000 square kilometers. Cobalt-rich ferro-manganese crusts contain rare metals such as cobalt, nickel and iron and are used in various industries such as engineering, electronics, infrastructure and batteries. The contract, the third signed between ISA and COMRA, makes China the only nation authorized to explore international seabeds for as many as three major types of minerals－polymetallic nodules, polymetallic sulfides and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts. Although a latecomer to deep-sea exploration, China won the right to search for polymetalic nodules in the northeastern Pacific Ocean in 2001, for polymetallic sulfide deposits in the southwestern Indian Ocean in 2011 and for cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts in the western Pacific in 2014. With China’s first contract to end in 2016, which means the country can begin commercially mining for polymetallic nodules in the northeastern Pacific, the country still faces technical hurdles in mining the ocean floor.