Once upon a time the economy of the Lake Huron shoreline was so renouned for its copper, legends say St. Brennan himself may have come as far as Collingwood to find it. Today the easy-access copper is largely gone, as too the rich veins of cobalt, the iron and nickel, all squeezed out of the rock and pressed into the wires, cars, buildings and toys all around us. But what of the emergine 3rd world, of the rising middle class of consumers in India and China, where will they find the mineral resources? An Australian company called Nautilus Minerals took a chance that the next motherlode might be just under the waves, and while their oceanic offshore prospecting payoff figures are nothing short of astounding, they may have also stumbled into a method of mining that is ecologically, and politically, safer than the traditional land-lubber methods.

“The gold is just lying there on the seabed, ... And let me tell you, we haven’t seen these types of mineral deposits since the beginning of modern mining.”
[ Race to the Bottom ]

So what do you suppose a tele-operated 6-ton aquatic mining drill droid might find in that great mound out there in the middle of Lake Huron? Or Lake Superior ... or James Bay ...