http://motherboard.vice.com/read/deep-sea-gold-rush November 17, 2015 Here in Papua New Guinea, one well-financed, first-mover company is about to pioneer deep sea mining. And that will mean dispatching a fleet of giant remote-operated robotic miners 5,000 feet below the surface to harvest the riches scattered across ocean floor. These mammoth underwater vehicles look like they’ve been hauled off the set of a sci-fi film—think Avatar meets The Abyss. And they'll be dredging up ... manganese nodules—metal-rich clumps—awaiting extraction in near-limitless supply.