A camera on the machine monitors its advance over the seabed.

A soft coral stands.

In its part, mining would involve excavating rocks down here, and no one knows the implications.

The project has run from this Spanish research funded by the U to find new sources of important metals.

What this project shows is how the technology is advancing in a way that makes deep sea mining see much more plausible, which confronts us with a very difficult question.

Is it the right thing to do, given how little we know about the potential impact it could have on life on the ocean floor operating underwater mining?

The seabed has never been tried before.

It would destroy whatever is directly in front of the machines, and they'd create clouds of sand and silt, which could smother marine plants and creatures even a long way away.

But there's growing pressure for mining to start rocks like these billions off them of the target because they're amazingly rich and important metals, especially Coble, which is needed for batteries.

The future is electric, so the boom in electric cars means there's growing demand for cobalt on.

Mining.

Companies think the deep ocean could provide it.

So if mining goes ahead, can the damage be limited?

We're on the brink of a new time that we will go down to the deep sea and start changing landscape of deep sea and the deep sea life on.

Then we have to consider.

Is it worth that?

We want to do that in the same way as we did already with land.

This is a trial device.

The machines that will actually do mining will be about 10 times bigger.

Dozens of ventures are planning to open minds on the seabed.

This is a glimpse of how they might look.

Mining would involve excavating rocks down here, and no one knows the Implications Project run from this Spanish researching funded by the U to find new sources of important metals because they're amazingly rich and important metals, especially Coble, which is needed for backwards.

We're on the brink of a new time.

That way we'll go down to the deep sea.

Dozens adventures are planning to open minds on the seabed.

Thanks for watching.

We really hope you enjoy that vigil.

Found it useful.

In fact, we really want you to watch some more of our vigils.

So make sure you subscribe to BBC Learning English and Seymour of May Dad.