In Canada lake, robot learns to mine without disrupting marine life [Video]

Three robotic arms extended under the water in a Canadian lake, delicately selecting pebbles from the bed, before storing them back inside the machine.

The exercise was part of a series of tests the robot was undergoing before planned deployment in the ocean, where its operators hope the machine can transform the search for the world’s most sought-after metals.

The robot was made by Impossible Metals, a company founded in California in 2020, which says it is trying to develop technology that allows the seabed to be harvested with limited ecological disruption.

Conventional underwater harvesting involves scooping up huge amounts of material in search of potato-sized things called poly-metallic nodules.

These nodules contain nickel, copper, cobalt, or other metals needed for electric vehicle batteries, among other key products.

Impossible Metals’ co-founder Jason Gillham told AFP his company’s robot looks for the nodules “in a selective way.”

The prototype, being tested …