A new robot system will reopen abandoned, flooded mines

THE IDEAVAMOSVAMOS of underwater mining is not restricted to the ocean floor (see ). High water tables submerge many terrestrial deposits, too. At minimum, this means doing a lot of pumping to make them workable. Sometimes, it makes those deposits altogether inaccessible. Flooding also adds to the cost of re-opening closed mines. The team behind hopes to do something about this.The Viable Alternative Mine Operating System, to give its full name, is being developed by a consortium of 16 European firms and research institutes. It is currently on trial at Silvermines, Ireland—which, as its name suggests, was once home to workings for silver and other metals. They are now closed and flooded. But one of them, a source of baryte, the principal ore of barium, has been repurposed as ’s test bed.