Willem Marks

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

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

a mile or so each time, it makes sense to do a lot of it down at that depth while they're down there before yanking it up each time, which they did every 12 hours or so.

a mile or so each time, it makes sense to do a lot of it down at that depth while they're down there before yanking it up each time, which they did every 12 hours or so.

a mile or so each time, it makes sense to do a lot of it down at that depth while they're down there before yanking it up each time, which they did every 12 hours or so.

Yeah, it's like that scene in Toy Story. Yeah. Exactly that. Where they're sending this down on this huge winch next to the claw, the grabbing device. They've then got this underwater vehicle. And that attaches itself onto the claw to help guide it. And so once they've maneuvered the claw into the position they want to grab some of the seafloor, it just yanks shut.

Yeah, it's like that scene in Toy Story. Yeah. Exactly that. Where they're sending this down on this huge winch next to the claw, the grabbing device. They've then got this underwater vehicle. And that attaches itself onto the claw to help guide it. And so once they've maneuvered the claw into the position they want to grab some of the seafloor, it just yanks shut.

Yeah, it's like that scene in Toy Story. Yeah. Exactly that. Where they're sending this down on this huge winch next to the claw, the grabbing device. They've then got this underwater vehicle. And that attaches itself onto the claw to help guide it. And so once they've maneuvered the claw into the position they want to grab some of the seafloor, it just yanks shut.

And once they've got it securely fastened inside the jaws of that claw, that grabber, It goes up to the surface a mile above.