Get the latest tech news
Trump administration may sell deep-sea mining leases at startup’s urging
Impossible Metals, a deep-sea mining startup, submitted a formal request to the Department of the Interior to sell leases to mine the ocean floor.
The company has developed an underwater autonomous vehicle that’s lowered by crane to the ocean floor, where it uses robotic claws to grab polymetallic nodules rich in minerals. Polymetallic nodules form over the course of millions of years, accumulating minerals that are dissolved in seawater, including manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, and copper. Sponges and other creatures growing on the floor could be directly harmed by the mining robots, and those that are passed over would still have to cope with sediment plumes polluting the normally clear water.
Or read this on TechCrunch
