and no one knows it better than scierchtscientist cindy van dover, she now consults with the undersean finding valuable minerals on the sea floor, the deposits that make up a hot spring and gold and silver are buy products of that. >> scientists have been can exploring the earth of precial metals. precious metals, the search is on under the sea it will the national oceanannic and atmospherickic administration k estimates there is $150 trillion in gold waiting ton mined from the floor of the world's oceans. >> industry's moving very, very fast. they have far more financial resources than the scientific community. >> sea bed mining is still in the planning stages but nautilus mining company report the contract in place with the island nation of papoa, nu guinea. a mining plan on its website. here is how it works. a collection machine on the sea bed breaks up the top layer of the ocean floor and pumps a semi-liquid or slurry up to the production ship. there the ore and water are separated and brought to land. "techknow" contacted nautilus minerals on the situation but they declined to gr