The Metals Company (TMC) has sufficient cash resources to deliver on its goals in the next two years, including submitting an application to the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for its Nordi-D contract area, which contains high-grade copper, cobalt and manganese resources.
The seafloor battery metals explorer, which was formed in the recent $2.9-billion merger between DeepGreen Metals and a special purpose acquisition company, on Monday affirmed its development and capital plan for the Pacific ocean project between Hawaii and Mexico.
With $113-million in cash and backing of key investors, TMC stated that it had enough cash to enable it to reach a point where it could submit its application for Nori-D to the ISA by the third quarter of 2023.
In the next two years, TMC would complete a pilot plant programme to process and refine polymetallic nodules into critical metals, construct and deploy the pilot collection system to lift nodules to the surface and transport them to shore for processing, and complete an environmental impact assessment.
The company reported that ISA continued to work against a deadline to finalise regulations regarding deep-sea mining by July 2023, pursuant to Nauru, an island state in Oceania, exercising its rights relating to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The ISA is obliged to complete the adoption of regulations within two years of the request made by the member State.
TMC noted that the ISA should consider and provisionally approve a plan of work for exploitation if it has not completed the adoption of regulations within the prescribed time.
An in-person ISA council and assembly meeting has been scheduled in Kingston, Jamaica, for December.
“We continue building the operational, strategic and scientific foundations we need to unlock our enormous estimated resource with a lighter planetary and social footprint than land-based mining. This momentum, combined with our substantial cash position and world-class strategic partners and investors – including Allseas, Maersk and Glencore, positions us strongly to deliver on our goals over the next two years. We expect to meet all key requirements to lodge our application by the end of the third quarter of 2023 for an exploitation contract for Nori-D, where a third-party economic analysis indicated, as of January 1, 2021, a project net present value of $6.8-billion assuming conservative metal prices,” said chairperson and CEO Gerard Barron.
“The Nori-D area, ranked as the biggest undeveloped nickel project in the world and representing just 22% of the company’s estimated defined resource, is only the beginning. Across our full Nori and TOML contract areas, we have identified a sufficient estimated amount of nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese in situ to support the electrification of 280-million EVs, or approximately the entire US passenger vehicle fleet,” said Barron.
TMC went public last month.