This Deep-Sea Mining Company Will Sweep The Ocean Floor For Battery Materials

Forbes

Gerard Barron’s The Metals Co. has a robot that can scoop up copper, cobalt and other seabed minerals crucial for EV batteries. But first, he needs a ton of nickels to pay for it.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2024/03/26/this-deep-sea-mining-company-will-sweep-the-ocean-floor-for-battery-materials-if-it-doesnt-go-broke-first/?sh=5b6a1f8221dd  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00 Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Sunday, March 31st.

00:05 Today on Forbes, this deep sea mining company will sweep the ocean floor for battery materials,

00:11 if it doesn't go broke first.

00:14 Gerard Barron, CEO of The Metals Company, sports a shaggy mop of hair, a rakish beard,

00:21 and a leather bomber jacket with a palm-sized polymetallic nodule in its pocket.

00:27 Aside from setting off metal detectors, the nodule is a good conversation starter, since

00:31 it was recovered from the Pacific Ocean's sea floor, two miles down, where it formed

00:36 over millions of years by precipitating atoms of metals out of the seawater.

00:42 Barron's nodule is more than a curiosity.

00:45 Crucially, it contains nickel, manganese, cobalt, and copper, all vital to the manufacture

00:51 of batteries like those that power electric vehicles.

00:55 Barron says there are billions of these metal-rich nodules, worth trillions of dollars, just

01:00 sitting on the bottom of the ocean waiting to be picked up.

01:03 The 57-year-old says, "This is not like drilling for oil, where it all just turns

01:08 into carbon dioxide.

01:10 These metals will be used and recycled.

01:12 We need much more metal as we move to lower-carbon energy, and this is how we can get those metals

01:16 with the lightest impact."

01:19 In 2021, the metals company, or TMC, went public on the Nasdaq via a SPAC, raising $570

01:28 million at a $2.9 billion valuation.

01:31 Its goal is commercially harvesting these rocks.

01:34 But today, the company still has no revenues, while shares have fallen 80%.

01:40 Last quarter, TMC was down to its last $25 million.

01:44 Last week, the company announced its full-year 2023 results, which amounted to a total cash

01:50 burn of $60 million against $20 million raised, and just $7 million left in the bank.

01:57 The good news is, Barron has options.

01:59 TMC's largest shareholders have agreed to loan the company another $45 million, enough

02:05 to get through one more year of permitting and bureaucracy.

02:08 Meanwhile, the company says, "Discussions with potential strategic partners continue.

02:15 On monetizing, what they figure is the $8.1 billion value of their initial nodule collection

02:20 site."

02:21 The disappointing news?

02:23 A couple months ago, the company was hoping to commence commercial nodule collection in

02:28 2025.

02:30 Given rulemaking bureaucracy, they now say it will be more like mid-2026 before they

02:35 can deploy the Hidden Gem, a former deepwater drill ship for the oil industry, which is

02:40 750 feet long and can accommodate 200.

02:44 Hidden Gem was provided by the Dutch offshore engineering company Allseas, which also built

02:49 the robotic nodule collector machine that will be lowered down through two miles of

02:53 ocean to the seabed.

02:55 Its initial field of harvest will be in the waters of the world's polymetallic nodule

02:59 hotspot, known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, or CCZ.

03:04 Sponsored by island nations Nauru, Tonga, and Kiribati, TMC has permits to mine 90,000

03:10 square miles of seafloor.

03:12 In 2022, TMC harvested a boatload of nodules to demonstrate it can be done at scale.

03:19 The bright yellow collection machine, about 30 feet long, is controlled from the ship

03:24 via an umbilical cord.

03:26 Crawling across the floor, it shoots air jets into the sand to loosen nodules, then sucks

03:31 them up.

03:32 Compressors and pumps on board the ship enable them to suck up the nodule bounty through

03:37 a tube called a riser.

03:40 On the back end, Baron has a deal with Japan's Pacific Metals Company to process 1.3 million

03:46 tons a year in its smelter.

03:48 The products are nickel-copper-cobalt alloy used to make cathodes for lithium-ion batteries,

03:54 and silico-manganese alloy used in steel manufacturing.

03:58 Naturally, some people don't think seafloor harvesting is a good idea.

04:03 Like Greenpeace, which last year sent two kayaks, two boats, and a five-person so-called

04:08 "climb team" to assault TMC's research ship.

04:11 A Dutch court ordered Greenpeace International to remove its people from TMC's ship.

04:17 Environmental scientists do worry that harvesting nodules will send up plumes of sediment into

04:22 the water and kill anything living on the seafloor, such as brittle stars and bizarre

04:27 sea cucumber species like the one known as the gummy squirrel.

04:31 Marine scientists and the International Union for Conservation of Nature have called for

04:36 a deep-sea mining ban.

04:38 Baron, who claims TMC is years ahead of competitors in developing harvesting tech, laments this

04:44 "green versus green" face-off.

04:47 He says, quote, "tiny minorities isolate good ideas."

04:52 He says that critics of deep-sea mining, quote, "are wrong on this one like they were on nuclear."

04:59 For full coverage, check out Christopher Hellman's piece on Forbes.com.

05:04 This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

05:06 Thanks for tuning in.

05:07 [music]

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