More than 13,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, a more-than-70-ton machine trundled like a tank on its caterpillar tracks for a tenth of a mile -- sucking up potato-sized nodules of rock packed with copper, manganese, cobalt, and nickel.

(Ionic Mineral Technologies) An aerial view of the new Silicon Ridge mine in Utah County. A local company recently confirmed large, high-grade deposits of critical and rare earth minerals at the site which are crucial components in modern technologies but currently mostly supplied by foreign markets.