A maverick Australian prospector is planning to scoop untold riches-gold, silver,copper-from the bottom of the ocean. Is it a cleaner way to mine or the beginning of an environmental disaster? More than 5,000 feet under the sea, off the coast of Papua New Guinea, a small white crab flexes its claw. It has paused halfway up a rock outcropping and is approaching a tantalizing colony of snails when a flash of light illuminates the seabed. A wondrous, prickly landscape of spires appears and stretches off into the blackness. The crab taps its feet on the rock, takes a tentative step toward the snails, and is suddenly confronted by a 6-ton, 10-foot-tall, remotely operated robotic drilling machine. The contraption is fitted with a series of circular, diamond-infused pulverizers, which it lowers onto a nearby rock surface. The pulverizers begin to spin, crushing the rock into gravel. A bloom of silt rises up over the seabed, enveloping the crab in a cloud.
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