With concerns that several metals critical to the world’s electric vehicle (EV) future are becoming harder and more expensive to find, there is a growing push to mine the world’s ocean beds and its vast areas of polymetallic nodules.
The nodules have been evaluated to contain four essential battery metals – cobalt, nickel, copper, and manganese – and it has been estimated that there are enough battery metal resources contained on the world’s ocean floors to fuel hundreds of millions of EVs.
After a stop-start entry into the potential supply of critical minerals, the subsea mining of this major source of battery metals is back on agenda – with interest accelerating on the back of the surge in petroleum prices and the effects of COVID-19 on onshore mining activities.
Two of the leading commercial supporters of the subsea harvesting of the polymetallic nodules, The Metals Company (NASDAQGS: TMC), and Global Sea Mineral Resources (GSR), believe it is inevitable that they can overcome technical and environmental challenges to bring this new source of battery metals to market.
The Metals Company
The Metals Company was created in 2021, when DeepGreen Metals Inc. entered into a definitive business combination agreement with Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corporation (SOAC) in a transaction with an estimated pro forma equity value of US$2.9B.
DeepGreen is a specialist in the proposed mining of polymetallic nodules, while SOAC is special purpose acquisition company with a dedicated ESG focus and deep operational and capital market capabilities in the energy and resource sectors. DeepGreen estimates the seafloor resources in the exploration contract areas held by the company’s subsidiaries alone are sufficient for 280M EVs – a quarter of the global passenger car fleet.
The company says the development of this resource offers an abundant, low-cost supply of critical raw materials for EV batteries and wiring including nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese, with “a lower lifecycle ESG impact than conventional mining”.
“Ensuring this critical supply of battery metals is essential to the transition from internal combustion engines to EVs,” the company states.
While environmentalists continue to raise major concerns about the impact of subsea mining, The Metals Company claims there is growing support from Western political leaders for development of the seafloor polymetallic nodules.
The company recently commended Western political and military leaders for their growing acknowledgement of the potential for seafloor polymetallic nodules to bolster domestic critical mineral supply chains for the clean energy transition.
According to The Metals Company, 17 high-ranking U.S. military officers, including former director of national intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, have all shown support for the potential benefits subsea mining of critical metals can bring. The Metals Company also revealed that as part of its Vision 2030 investment plan, the French government is investing over €300M to support deep-sea exploration for polymetallic nodules.
France holds two seafloor minerals exploration contracts with the International Seabed Authority: a polymetallic nodule contract in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) of the Pacific Ocean and a polymetallic sulphides contract in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Specialist vessel
In November 2021, The Metals Company unveiled its pilot polymetallic nodule collection vessel, the Hidden Gem, along with the facility where the prototype of a nodule collector vehicle is being built.
The Hidden Gem is a 228m-long former drill ship and is currently undergoing key modifications to enable at-sea deployment through its existing moonpool of a 4.3km-long riser that would bring polymetallic nodules up from the seafloor. The Metals Company believes the Hidden Gem can become the world’s first ship classed as a subsea mining vessel by the American Bureau of Shipping.
Allseas Group, a specialist supplier of vessels and equipment to the oil and gas industry, has also integrated a launch and recovery system for a 12m-long nodule collector vehicle that would enable it to be deployed over the side of the vessel.
Global Sea Mineral Resources NV
GSR is a subsidiary of the highly regarded Belgian dredging, environmental, and marine engineering business – the DEME Group. In January 2013, the International Seabed Authority and GSR signed a 15-year contract for prospecting and exploration for polymetallic nodules. Under the contract, GSR has exclusive rights for exploration for polymetallic nodules over 76,728km2 of the seabed in the eastern part of the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) of the Central Pacific Ocean.
The company has already undertaken significant exploration activities over its vast subsea holdings, completing a detailed bathymetry map, obtaining extensive video footage of the marine life and nodule and sediment samples.
The purpose-built Deep Sea Graviprobe delivered a quantitative soil strength profile of the first metres of sediment. A combination of imagery, high-resolution survey, and boxcore samples facilitated resource estimation.
With the expertise of DEME behind it, GSR has already made strides towards trying to overcome the technical issues of mining the seafloor with the development of specialist subsea mining equipment.
Recent failures
While the potential to mine these vast resources polymetallic nodules has been on the agenda for decades, technical and environmental roadblocks have so far halted their commercial development.
Toronto-headquartered Nautilus Minerals was probably the closest to breaking through the obstacles when it reached an agreement with the Papua New Guinea government to develop the Solwara 1 project in the Bismark Sea.
Nautilus identified the potential to adapt ideas used by the petroleum industry as the best way to overcome the technical issues faced in exploring for and mining the polymetallic nodules. However, after identifying and commissioning the construction of unique subsea mining equipment, Nautilus ran out of funds and was forced into bankruptcy.
At around the same time the PNG Government, under significant pressure from environmentalists, appeared to have a change of heart in its support of subsea mining off its coastline. Since then, the race to mine large fields of polymetallic nodules has switched to other regions, driven by recognition the potential battery metal deposit riches.
While some critics suggest the difficulties of large-scale mining of polymetallic nodules may be too technically challenging, proponents have pointed out that the petroleum industry has been operating in some of the world’s most treacherous ocean environments for many decades.
They have also highlighted that subsea polymetallic nodule mining sites benefit significantly from a lack of overburden, a major cost for onshore miners.
