When Jiang Chen returned to the surface, he immediately found Xu Lu and explained to her his idea of deepwater mining.
"Deepwater mining?"
Xu Lu looked at Jiang Chen, puzzled. All detectable mines on earth have been mined clean. Even if the mantle beneath the deep sea a few kilometers below still has undeveloped deposits, because of the high cost of mining and the severe damage to the geological environment, the operation would be impossible to conduct.
Also, the existence of space elevators significantly reduced the cost of space. 22nd century's mining operations were all focused on space mining. It was fair to say that deepwater mining was as outdated as coal power generation.
"That's right, deepwater mining technology, preferably an automated system. Is that possible? Jiang Chen asked.
"It is certainly possible since it is an outdated technology… But are there mining deposits along the coast of Wanghai?"