The CIA in the 1970s used eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes as the fake frontman for a faux deep-sea mining operation that was in reality an attempt to bring up a sunken Russian submarine from the ocean depths, the BBC reports.
Fast forward 40 years, a deep sea mining operation is poised to launch off Papa New Guinea in the hopes of mining gold and copper from vents in the ocean floor.
But it all started as a ruse in 1974.
The CIA spent $500 million to build a ship — the Hughes Glomar Explorer —for the sole purpose of raising a K-129 Russian submarine that was 3 miles down on the ocean floor about 1,500 miles north of Hawaii, the BBC reports.
The ship had every tool to go deep sea mining for manganese modules, but every tool — including a capture ship and a moon pool to haul the sub in its underbelly — was built to bring up the K-129 and its nuclear codes and missiles that it carried.
The mission failed when one of the claws raising the sub snapped, sending half of the sub — and its valuable contents — back down to whence it came.
However unintentionally, the operation spawned an idea that is poised to launch soon, albeit amid intense opposition from those who don't think it's a good idea to send heavy equipment to the ocean floor, the BBC reports.
Work is intended to start next year in the Bismarck Sea off the coast of Papa New Guinea with three massive machines lowered to an undersea volcano.
The intended loot — gold and copper that could be worth in the billions, BBC reports.
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