Benzinga | Sep 28, 2021 09:06AM EDT

The Metals Company Highlights Mobilization Of Its Latest Offshore Research Campaign, Aimed At Finding World's Largest Known Source Of Battery Metals

* Offshore expedition 5C is part of a multi-year, $75 million deep-sea research program to establish an environmental baseline and analyse the impacts of The Metals Company's proposed operations to source critical battery metals from deep-sea polymetallic nodules.

* The expedition follows The Metals Company's September listing on NASDAQ, and its earlier identification of more than 1.6 billion tonnes (wet) of nodules across two of its contract areas, containing battery metal resource sufficient for 280 million electric vehicles (EVs) -- equivalent to the entire US passenger car fleet.

* The world's largest untapped deposit of battery metals -- nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese -- is contained in polymetallic nodules that sit unattached on the Pacific seafloor in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ), between Hawaii and Mexico.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Metals Company (NASDAQ:TMC) (the "Company" or "TMC"), an explorer of lower-impact battery metals from seafloor polymetallic nodules, today announced the mobilisation of its latest offshore research campaign, Environmental Expedition 5C, which continues its investigation of the pelagic zone in its NORI-D license area of the Clarion Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean.

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The Metals Company's exploration vessel, the Maersk Launcher.

The Company's fourth environmental campaign this year, Expedition 5C is the latest work package in The Metals Company's multi-year deep-sea research program intended to establish a rigorous environmental baseline and characterize the potential impacts of its proposed nodule collection operations to source critical battery metals from deep-sea polymetallic nodules.

Setting sail this week aboard the exploration vessel the Maersk Launcher, researchers from the University of Hawaii at Mnoa, University of Maryland, Texas A&M and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology will conduct numerous studies over the six-week expedition to further characterise the biological species and food web structure from the ocean surface to the benthic boundary layer, just above the abyssal seafloor at depths of up to 4,500 meters. In addition, researchers will continue examining the chemistry, trace metal and nutrient profiles found throughout the water column.

At the researchers' disposal will be an array of specialized equipment including hydrographic rosettes to collect water samples, a Saildrone autonomous vehicle and MOCNESS nets, which will be used to sample micronekton and zooplankton communities throughout the water column.

"The collection and analysis of this baseline data is a critical component of the Environmental, Social and Impact Assessment (ESIA) required to establish the state of the ecosystem as it exists prior to the commencement of nodule collection and to assist in predicting the potential effects on the surrounding environment," said Dr. Michael Clarke, TMC's Environmental Program Manager. "The team of researchers on this expedition are at the top of their fields and the research they produce will contribute greatly to advance society's knowledge of the Clarion Clipperton Zone."

The planet's largest known source of battery metals

TMC's NORI-D nodule project -- recently ranked as the #1 nickel project in the world by mining.com -- is the first in the Company's project development pipeline. In January, The Metals Company published an upward revision to the nodule resource reported within the NORI-D area held by its subsidiary, Nauru Ocean Resources Inc., (NORI), improving resource confidence from inferred to indicated status. Resource tonnage increased by 7% over the reported area from 320Mt inferred to 341Mt indicated. The positive conversion rates arising from infill sampling grid with quality box core sample data are high compared to the typical outcomes from infill sampling of terrestrial mineral deposits.

As countries invest in large-scale clean energy transition programmes and begin to phase out internal combustion engines, hundreds of millions of tonnes of critical battery metals will be needed to decarbonise the world's energy and transport systems, according to the International Energy Agency -- will be vital.

In its recent 100-day supply chain review, the Biden Administration elevated nickel to 'critical' status -- singling it out as one of three battery metals deemed 'most critical' to US interests, alongside cobalt and lithium -- and flagged the establishment of domestic nickel refining capacity as its number one priority.