A Chinese research vessel docked in the Cook Islands Saturday as it probed the Pacific nation’s deep-sea mining potential, a fledgling industry of mounting interest to both Beijing and Washington.

The Da Yang Hao docked in the palm-shaded port of Avatiu on a “scientific research cruise” through the tropical archipelago, the Cook Islands’ Seabed Minerals Authority said.

Huge areas of seabed around the Cook Islands are carpeted in polymetallic nodules, lumpy rocks studded with rare earths and critical minerals such as cobalt, nickel and manganese.

The Cook Islands — which lays claim to one of the world’s biggest deposits of polymetallic nodules — signed a contentious deep-sea mining cooperation deal with China earlier this year.

“This cruise is about learning by doing,” said Seabed Miner

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