Along certain parts of the ocean floor lie a bounty of rare minerals and metals, critical components for batteries, electric cars, and other electronics.

But mining for them in the deep sea is a controversial and potentially destructive process.

Special correspondent Villa Marx detailed the process and the stakes in a series of news hour reports last

year. Marks now has a new piece in Scientific American on the controversy, and he joins us now.

Villam, thanks so much for being here. Before we get to the debate over this mining practice,

tell us a little bit more about what is down there and why there's such a strong incentive

to go get it.

Well, there's a variety, William, of deposits all over the planet from various depths

in our various oceans.

And those often include very valuable metals, things like copper, cobalt, zinc, lead, what's known as rare earth minerals.

Some of the deposits contain gold and silver.

And so the incentive, as is often the case with mining, is around money.

But as you mentioned, at the moment in this era where we're transitioning as a species,

essentially, away from fossil fuels to renewable

energy, some of these metals in particular things like cobalt, like copper, are crucial,

not just for electric cars, but also for electric power, building infrastructure, grid for our

electricity systems. And so there's a huge incentive for miners,

given high prices for some of these metals,

to spend money and try and find new deposits.

And one area that has, until now, really been entirely untapped,

is at the bottom of the ocean.

As you detailed in your stories for the NewsHour, it's quite a process to bring that treasure of the ocean. As you detailed in your stories for the NewsHour,

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