The paper deals with the necessity to look for other potential uses of unconventional sources of raw materials to meet the growing needs of human society. The first part of the paper contains the overview of the materials located in seas and oceans. This part describes the alternatives of mining, the dredging systems for extreme depths and the functional structure of the hoisting mechanism for dredging as well. The second part of the paper describes the future prospects for the extraction of minerals from seas and oceans. © 2015 University of Dubronvnik. All rights reserved.