The Metals Company Contracts CSIRO-led Consortium to Pioneer Ecosystem-Based Environmental Monitoring and Management Plan for Deep-Sea Nodule Collection
July 12 2022 - 8:00AM
The Metals Company (Nasdaq: TMC) (the “Company” or “TMC”) today
announced that its Australian subsidiary, The Metals Company
Australia Pty Ltd., has entered into a research funding agreement
with a consortium of institutions led by Australia’s Commonwealth
Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to create a
framework for the development of an ecosystem-based management and
monitoring plan (EMMP) for its proposed deep-sea polymetallic
nodule collection operations in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ)
of the Pacific Ocean.
The CSIRO-led consortium, which includes global leaders in the
development and application of effective EMMPs in a diversity of
marine areas, will leverage TMC’s extensive environmental baseline
data — acquired in the Company’s NORI project area in the CCZ — to
help develop appropriate indicators and tolerance limits to create
safe parameters for collecting seafloor nodules. The work will form
the scientific foundation of TMC’s future Adaptive Management
System (AMS), a state-of-the-art predictive system that will use
environmental and operational data to enable the Company to
mitigate operational impacts in the deep-sea environment as much as
possible. A core component of this system will be the Company’s
Digital Twin, which is expected to provide robust scenario testing
of seafloor mine plans, monitoring of nodule collection operations
and a dynamic dashboard for review by stakeholders.
Gerard Barron, Chairman and CEO of The Metals Company, said:
“Last year our subsidiary, NORI, completed environmental baseline
studies in partnership with leading marine research institutions.
We’ve now got one of the world’s most extensive deep-sea datasets
to hand over to the CSIRO-led consortium, experts with the
practical experience we need to develop a scientifically robust
framework for a marine ecosystem-based management program for
NORI-D. I’m thrilled that these trusted and independent
institutions have agreed to undertake this research, setting a high
bar for future work in this industry.”
The Metals Company has invested significant resources in
its deep-sea environmental baseline program, and in November 2021
the Company entered into an agreement with Kongsberg Digital to
develop a Digital Twin. As TMC prepares for pilot nodule collector
system trials in the CCZ later this year, the CSIRO-led research
project will propel the development of a rigorous management plan
focussed on the cumulative impacts of collecting nodules at a
regional scale within the CCZ to enable TMC to operate within safe
ecological limits. The Company expects to employ the science-based
framework developed by the CSIRO-led consortium in the Adaptive
Management System — which will also draw on expert opinion and
machine learning to improve operational efficiencies and reduce the
uncertainty of environmental impacts over time — ahead of planned
commercial operations expected to commence in 2024.
About The Metals Company
The Metals Company is an explorer of lower-impact battery metals
from seafloor polymetallic nodules, on a dual mission: (1) supply
metals for the clean energy transition with the least possible
negative environmental and social impact and (2) accelerate the
transition to a circular metal economy. The company through its
subsidiaries holds exploration and commercial rights to three
polymetallic nodule contract areas in the Clarion Clipperton Zone
of the Pacific Ocean regulated by the International Seabed
Authority and sponsored by the governments of Nauru, Kiribati and
the Kingdom of Tonga. More information about The Metals Company is
available at www.metals.co.
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Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements made in this press release are not historical
facts but are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe
harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied
by words such as “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,”
“anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “should,” “would,” “plan,”
“predict,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “future,” “outlook” and
similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or
trends or that are not statements of historical matters. The
forward-looking statements contained in this press release include,
without limitation, statements regarding the development and use of
an ecosystem-based management and monitoring plan (EMMP) as well as
the design, use and accuracy of any technology developed by TMC and
its partners, agents and/or service providers to support its
operations. These forward-looking statements involve significant
risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to
differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking
statements. Most of these factors are outside TMC’s control and are
difficult to predict. Factors that may cause such differences
include, but are not limited to: regulatory uncertainties and the
impact of government regulation and political instability on TMC’s
resource activities; changes to any of the laws, rules, regulations
or policies to which TMC is subject; the impact of extensive and
costly environmental requirements on TMC’s operations;
environmental liabilities; the impact of polymetallic nodule
collection on biodiversity in the Clarion Clipperton Zone and
recovery rates of impacted ecosystems; TMC’s ability to develop
minerals in sufficient grade or quantities to justify commercial
operations; the lack of development of seafloor polymetallic nodule
deposit; uncertainty in the estimates for mineral resource
calculations from certain contract areas and for the grade and
quality of polymetallic nodule deposits; risks associated with
natural hazards; uncertainty with respect to the specialized
treatment and processing of polymetallic nodules that TMC may
recover; risks associated with collection, development and
processing polymetallic nodules; risks associated with TMC’s
limited operating history; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic;
risks associated with TMC’s intellectual property and the validity,
use and ownership of any new technology or intellectual property
subsisting therein; and other risks and uncertainties indicated
from time to time in the Company’s Form 10K, dated and filed with
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 25, 2022
, including those under “Risk Factors” therein, and in TMC’s other
future filings with the SEC. TMC cautions that the foregoing list
of factors is not exclusive. TMC cautions readers not to place
undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak
only as of the date made. TMC does not undertake or accept any
obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or
revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change
in its expectations or any change in events, conditions, or
circumstances on which any such statement is based except as
required by law.
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