Click to play videoNew Delhi: Scientists at India's National Institute of Ocean Technology have developed a method to retrieve potatoes shaped nodules made up of metals like Magnesium, Copper, Nickel and Cobalt from the ocean floor by using an underwater crawler that can gather and send back the nodules from around five kilometres under the sea.
The scientists created a soil tester to make sure the sand is firm enough for the ten-ton crawler. And if something does go wrong there's the remote operated vehicle to perform a rescue act.
It all adds up to a pretty cool big picture.
"We have joined a select club of nations and very of them in the global community have this kind of knowledge,” says Minister Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal.
India has a mining site in the Indian Ocean, 2,000 kilometres off Kanyakumari. But, till now only the soil tester has been tested at those depths.
Deep sea mining is also expensive and commercial extraction is not considered likely well into the next decade. But scientists are ensuring India will be ready.
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