Willem Marks

Well, it's 270 feet long. It towers above the water when you first board it. It's got several decks. And you've got a massive amount of machinery. You've got these winches, you've got cranes, a couple of these remotely operated vehicles, these kind of huge cuboid machines that go 6,000 meters deep if they need to.

Well, it's 270 feet long. It towers above the water when you first board it. It's got several decks. And you've got a massive amount of machinery. You've got these winches, you've got cranes, a couple of these remotely operated vehicles, these kind of huge cuboid machines that go 6,000 meters deep if they need to.

Well, it's 270 feet long. It towers above the water when you first board it. It's got several decks. And you've got a massive amount of machinery. You've got these winches, you've got cranes, a couple of these remotely operated vehicles, these kind of huge cuboid machines that go 6,000 meters deep if they need to.

And they're all on the back of this massive deck, often moving around at times throughout the day, throughout the night. The vessel's a couple of hours away from the shore, as I mentioned, and it's really sticking in one place.

And they're all on the back of this massive deck, often moving around at times throughout the day, throughout the night. The vessel's a couple of hours away from the shore, as I mentioned, and it's really sticking in one place.

And they're all on the back of this massive deck, often moving around at times throughout the day, throughout the night. The vessel's a couple of hours away from the shore, as I mentioned, and it's really sticking in one place.

the engines, the thrusters around the outside of the vessel are often firing at different moments to keep it to the millimeter almost in one position as they work several miles or at least a mile deep beneath them.

the engines, the thrusters around the outside of the vessel are often firing at different moments to keep it to the millimeter almost in one position as they work several miles or at least a mile deep beneath them.

the engines, the thrusters around the outside of the vessel are often firing at different moments to keep it to the millimeter almost in one position as they work several miles or at least a mile deep beneath them.

So they're not doing full-scale long-term industrial mining. What they were doing this summer was essentially carving out chunks of the seabed beneath the vessel in dimensions 10 meters by 10 meters to kind of get a cross sectional analysis of the ore, the rock that they want to mine from at a much larger scale in the future.

So they're not doing full-scale long-term industrial mining. What they were doing this summer was essentially carving out chunks of the seabed beneath the vessel in dimensions 10 meters by 10 meters to kind of get a cross sectional analysis of the ore, the rock that they want to mine from at a much larger scale in the future.

So they're not doing full-scale long-term industrial mining. What they were doing this summer was essentially carving out chunks of the seabed beneath the vessel in dimensions 10 meters by 10 meters to kind of get a cross sectional analysis of the ore, the rock that they want to mine from at a much larger scale in the future.

So they were digging out these huge chunks every single day and night, bringing some of them on deck, and then looking to see essentially how much metal was inside those sections and hoping that that would then translate into a similar level of metal concentration over a much larger area.

So they were digging out these huge chunks every single day and night, bringing some of them on deck, and then looking to see essentially how much metal was inside those sections and hoping that that would then translate into a similar level of metal concentration over a much larger area.

So they were digging out these huge chunks every single day and night, bringing some of them on deck, and then looking to see essentially how much metal was inside those sections and hoping that that would then translate into a similar level of metal concentration over a much larger area.

Well, this is what was so surprising to me, because they told me they had permits to extract 180 tons of this rock from the seafloor for analysis, which will be carried out

Well, this is what was so surprising to me, because they told me they had permits to extract 180 tons of this rock from the seafloor for analysis, which will be carried out

Well, this is what was so surprising to me, because they told me they had permits to extract 180 tons of this rock from the seafloor for analysis, which will be carried out

in laboratories in australia which is not that far away from papua new guinea but it's still a fair old haul and then probably five to ten times as much as they're bringing on deck they're digging up and then depositing just a few yards away in these kinds of stockpiles and i said well what are you guys doing that for and they said we hope that when we come back it'll make it much faster to mine it later on and since this device they're using to pull it up on deck goes up and down

in laboratories in australia which is not that far away from papua new guinea but it's still a fair old haul and then probably five to ten times as much as they're bringing on deck they're digging up and then depositing just a few yards away in these kinds of stockpiles and i said well what are you guys doing that for and they said we hope that when we come back it'll make it much faster to mine it later on and since this device they're using to pull it up on deck goes up and down