NORI and Allseas Lift Over 3,000 Tonnes of Polymetallic Nodules to Surface from Planet’s Largest Deposit of Battery Metals, as Leading Scientists and Marine Experts Continue Gathering Environmental Data
November 14 2022 - 8:38AM
TMC the metals company Inc. (Nasdaq: TMC) (“TMC” or the “Company”),
an explorer of the world’s largest estimated undeveloped source of
critical battery metals, today announced that its subsidiary NORI
and offshore partner Allseas have successfully concluded the first
integrated system test in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the
Pacific Ocean since the 1970s, achieving all significant pilot
milestones while collecting approximately 4,500 tonnes of seafloor
polymetallic nodules. Over 3,000 tonnes were transported up a
4.3km-long riser system to the surface production vessel, Hidden
Gem, while the additional 1,500 tonnes of nodules were purposely
left behind on the seafloor as part of the trials.
Following initial pilot system commissioning
tests, the dedicated team of 130 crew and engineers aboard the
Hidden Gem conducted a series of production runs in NORI-D test
area to assess the system’s endurance prior to further development
into a small-scale commercial system. Driving the pilot nodule
collector over 80 kilometers, Allseas engineers put the system
through a series of tests achieving a sustained production rate of
86.4 tonnes per hour, roughly equivalent to transporting the mass
of 40 Tesla Model S vehicles up the 4.3-km riser pipe every sixty
minutes. The pilot system is expected to be scaled up to include
additional collector heads and a wider diameter riser pipe in
preparation for NORI’s Project Zero, which will target a production
rate of over 200 tonnes per hour.
Concurrently, aboard a dedicated monitoring
vessel, marine experts and academic scientists conducted the
first monitoring program of an integrated pilot collector system
test. The team used remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and
autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to survey, monitor and sample
the sediment plumes generated by collector operations on the
seafloor as well as the mid-water discharge of water from the riser
system used to transport nodules from seafloor to the Hidden Gem.
The team deployed an array of over 50 subsea sensors on seafloor
landers and mid-water moorings to continually monitor sediment
plumes and noise generated by the nodule collection operations. The
ongoing monitoring program will continue to survey environmental
impacts and produce valuable scientific data after the conclusion
of the collector system test.
Gerard Barron, CEO & Chairman of The Metals
Company said: “We believe in making decisions based on data and
evidence, not speculation and sentiment. This pilot collection
system trial and monitoring campaign is the single most important
milestone in de-risking the NORI-D project and establishing actual
data on the environmental impact profile of potential nodule
collection operations and improvements we can make going
forward.”
He added: “I’d like to thank the teams aboard
all three vessels involved in this complex pilot test and
monitoring campaign who have worked tirelessly—some for
months—co-ordinating and solving problems together offshore. Hidden
Gem is now heading back to port with over 3,000 tonnes of nodules
in her hold but the post-collection survey work is still ongoing
until the end of the year. We look forward to the completion of
this important work and the opportunity to share the data and its
implications with the global community as soon as possible.”
With the technology trials complete, the marine
research teams will remain on-site to recover the landers and
moorings deployed for the collector test monitoring program and
will undertake post-collection surveys to compare the status of the
seafloor environment before and after the test. Once complete, the
collection system test monitoring program will represent the single
largest simultaneous environmental impact monitoring study ever
conducted in the CCZ. The data collected, together with many
terabytes of existing baseline data collected by NORI throughout 16
offshore campaigns, will form the basis of NORI’s application to
the International Seabed Authority for an exploitation contract,
which the Company expects to be ready for submission in the second
half of 2023.
TMC and NORI expect that the findings from the
rich data gathered during the trials will be published in
scientific literature in the next year, in what is expected to be a
significant expansion of our understanding of the deep-sea
ecosystem in the CCZ where 17 of the 19 nodule exploration
contracts awarded by the ISA are located.
In September 2022, NORI announced that
it received the ISA’s recommendation to commence its pilot nodule
collection system trials in the CCZ after its review of the
Collector Test Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Collector
Test Environmental Monitoring and Management Plan (EMMP). While
several ISA contractors including BGR (Germany), GSR (Belgium) and
NIOT (India) have successfully conducted trials of prototype nodule
collectors in recent years, the conclusion of NORI’s tests marks
the first time an integrated nodule collection system — including a
riser system — has been tested in the Clarion Clipperton Zone since
the 1970s, when oil, gas, mining and industrial majors including
Shell, BP, Rio Tinto (Kennecott), US Steel, INCO (Vale) and
Sumitomo successfully conducted pilot test work, collecting ~2,000
tonnes of nodules.
In March 2022, NORI and Allseas agreed that the
pilot nodule collection system would be upgraded by Allseas to a
commercial system with a targeted production capacity of 1.3
million tonnes of wet nodules per year and expected production
readiness by Q4 2024.
About The Metals CompanyThe 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.
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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 publication of data
from monitoring of the pilot collection system testing in the CCZ,
TMC’s pilot collection testing in the CCZ, and the timing and
content of an application to the ISA for an exploitation contract
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: the successful and
timely completion of the ongoing pilot testing of TMC’s collection
system in the CCZ; 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 CCZ 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; TMC’s
ability to raise additional funds; and other risks and
uncertainties indicated from time to time in the Company’s Form
10-K, dated and filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) on March 25, 2022 as well as the Company’s Form
10-Q filed with the SEC on August 15, 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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