Nautilus Minerals believes the future of mining lies at the bottom of the ocean. The Australian-Canadian company on Tuesday revealed some of the remote-controlled vehicles that will be cutting up the ocean floor in search of copper, gold, nickel, and other minerals. They are arguably the first machines of their kind in the world.

All three machines are around 50 feet long, 15-20 feet wide, and weigh anywhere from 220 to 340 U.S. tons.

The collecting machine will draw ground up rock from the surface into the pumps that carry it up to the ship. Source: Nautilus Minerals

All three machines can be operated remotely from control rooms on a ship that sits on the surface of the ocean. The ship will be connected to a central pumping system that will pipe minerals upward. The auxiliary cutter begins the work by grinding down the seafloor to make it level enough for the second piece of equipment, the bulk cutter. That machine grinds the resulting slurry up fine enough for the collection machine to suck it up before it is sent to a ship on the surface.

On the ship, the water is separated from the rock, particles larger than 8 microns are filtered out and the water is pumped back to the seafloor.

The company held a design competition to pick the contractors that will build the equipment. The main contract for the cutters and the collection machine went to SMD, a maker of subsea remote vehicles based based near Newcastle, England. Caterpillar made the track systems the vehicles use to drive around the ocean floor.

The designs are based on existing technology that companies use to dig trenches for oil and gas pipelines, according to Nautilus. "They are a hybrid of oil and gas trenching equipment and continuous mining equipment found on land," Johnston told CNBC.

Kevin Cain, VP, Projects, Nautilus, Mike Johnston, CEO, Nautilus, Shontel Norgate, CFO, Nautilus and Andrew Hodgson, CEO SMD in front of the Auxiliary Cutter. Source: Nautilus Materials