“SOME 1600 metres below the waves, a 150-tonne tank-like vehicle wields a robotic arm armed with rotating rock cutters. After it has ground down the volcanic chimneys that rise from the sea floor, other mining robots follow in its tracks. One chews up the levelled seabed, composed of ores of copper and gold; another acts like a giant vacuum cleaner, gathering the finely ground rubble so that it can be pumped to a ship at the surface.
If all goes to plan, this is the scene that will play out in late 2013 at a site called Solwara 1, off the coast of Papua New Guinea”
New Scientist (subscription requird)
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