Title 30Mineral Lands and MiningRelease 119-73

§1902 Research program

Title 30 › Chapter CHAPTER 31— - MARINE MINERAL RESOURCES RESEARCH › § 1902

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary must set up and run a research program about marine mineral resources. The program’s goals are to promote safe and responsible research, mapping, assessment, and exploration; help develop U.S. technologies for efficient and environmentally sound use; coordinate federal technologies and assets for research and development; and encourage colleges and industry to do joint basic and applied research through grants, agreements, or contracts. To carry this out, the Secretary must build partnerships among government, industry, and universities; gather and share basic data (including seabed maps); identify federal technologies that could help undersea work (like ships, submersibles, mapping, power, and data systems); and improve communication and coordination among federal and state agencies, universities, and private groups about seabed research in continental shelves, ocean basins, and cold-water areas.

Full Legal Text

Title 30, §1902

Mineral Lands and Mining — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary shall establish and carry out a program of research on marine mineral resources.
(b)The goal of the program shall be to—
(1)promote research, identification, assessment, and exploration of marine mineral resources in an environmentally responsible manner;
(2)assist in developing domestic technologies required for efficient and environmentally sound development of marine mineral resources;
(3)coordinate and promote the use of technologies developed with Federal assistance, and the use of available Federal assets, for research, identification, assessment, exploration, and development of marine mineral resources; and
(4)encourage academia and industry to conduct basic and applied research, on a joint basis, through grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts with the Federal Government.
(c)In carrying out the program, the Secretary shall—
(1)promote and coordinate partnerships between industry, government, and academia to research, identify, assess, and explore marine mineral resources in an environmentally sound manner;
(2)undertake programs to develop the basic information necessary to the long-term national interest in marine mineral resources (including seabed mapping) and to ensure that data and information are accessible and widely disseminated as needed and appropriate;
(3)identify, and promote cooperation among agency programs that are developing, technologies developed by other Federal programs that may hold promise for facilitating undersea applications related to marine mineral resources, including technologies related to vessels and other platforms, underwater vehicles, survey and mapping systems, remote power sources, data collection and transmission systems, and various seabed research systems; and
(4)foster communication and coordination between Federal and State agencies, universities, and private entities concerning marine mineral research on seabeds of the continental shelf, ocean basins, and arctic and cold water areas.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Methane Hydrate Research and Development Pub. L. 106–193, May 2, 2000, 114 Stat. 234, known as the Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act of 2000, which was set out as a note under this section, was amended and transferred to chapter 32 (§ 2001 et seq.) of this title by Pub. L. 109–58, title IX, § 968, Aug. 8, 2005, 119 Stat. 894.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

30 U.S.C. § 1902

Title 30Mineral Lands and Mining

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73