A robot the size of a small house crawls across the ocean floor like a giant’s pool cleaner, vacuuming up potato-sized rocks called polymetallic nodules. Packed with nickel, copper, manganese, and ...

Supporters say mining the seafloor could cause less environmental harm than mining on land. Opponents say the danger to fragile ecosystems is too great ...

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to promote mining of the deep-sea floor, a controversial way to get critical minerals that are used in a wide range of electronics and other ...