Latest news with #criticalminerals
France 24
5 hours ago
- Business
- France 24
The Pacific island nation that wants to mine the ocean floor
Fringed by sparkling lagoons and palm-shaded beaches, Pacific nation the Cook Islands has opened its vast ocean territory for mining exploration. Research vessels roam the seas searching for deposits of battery metals, rare earths and critical minerals that litter the deep ocean's abyssal plains. The frontier industry is likened by some to a modern-day gold rush, and decried by others as environmental "madness". AFP visited the sunburst-orange MV Anuanua Moana at the Cook Islands' sleepy port of Avatiu, where it loaded supplies before setting sail for the archipelago's outer reaches. "The resource in our field is probably in the order of about US$4 billion in potential value," said chief executive Hans Smit from Moana Minerals, which converted the former supply ship into a deepwater research vessel. It is fitted with chemistry labs, sonar arrays and sensors used to probe the seabed for coveted metals. For two years it has sailed the Cook Islands, halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii, gathering data to convince regulators that deep-sea mining is safe. While exploration is far advanced, no company has started mining on a commercial scale. Big business "I want to be mining before 2030," Smit said from the ship's tower, as whirring cranes loaded wooden crates of heavy gear below. "Absolutely, I think that we can." Large tracts of seabed around the Cook Islands are carpeted in polymetallic nodules, misshapen black globes encrusted with cobalt, nickel, manganese and other coveted metals. Demand has been driven by the rise of electric vehicles, rechargeable batteries and durable alloys used in everything from construction to medicine. The Cook Islands lay claim to one of just four major nodule deposits globally. Moana Minerals -- a subsidiary of a Texas-based company -- owns the rights to explore 20,000 square kilometres (7,500 square miles) within the Cook Islands' exclusive economic zone. "If we put one mining ship on there, and we started producing metals, we will be one of the largest mines around," said Smit. 'Belongs to us' Few countries are as reliant on the ocean as the Cook Islands, a seafaring nation of some 17,000 people scattered across a chain of volcanic isles and coral atolls. Pristine lagoons lure wealthy tourists that prop-up the economy, fridges are stocked with fish plucked from vibrant reefs, and local myths teach children to revere the sea. Many Cook Islanders fear deep-sea mining could taint their precious "moana", or ocean, forever. "I have seen the ship in the harbour," said tour guide Ngametua Mamanu, 55. "Why do we need the mining stuff to destroy the oceans?" Retiree Ana Walker, 74, feared foreign interests had come to plunder her island home. "We think that these people are coming over to make money and to leave the mess with us." Deep-sea mining companies tout the need for critical minerals to make electric vehicles, solar panels and other "green" technologies. The idea holds some allure in a place like the Cook Islands, where climate change is linked to droughts, destructive cyclones and rising seas. "If all goes well, there is good that can come out of it. Financially," said third-generation pearl farmer James Kora, 31. "But it relies on how well we manage all those minerals. If the science says it's safe." 'Guinea pigs' Marine biologist Teina Rongo squinted into the sunlight as his small boat motored past the Anuanua Moana, an emblem of an industry he views with deep distrust. "We were never about exploring the bottom of the ocean, because our ancestors believed it is a place of the gods," said Rongo. "We don't belong there." Deep-sea mining companies are still figuring the best way to retrieve nodules that can lie five kilometres (three miles) or more beneath the waves. Most focus on robotic harvesting machines, which scrape up nodules as they crawl the ocean floor. Critics fear mining will smother marine life with plumes of waste, and that the alien noise of heavy machinery will disrupt oceanic migrations. Environmentalist Alanna Smith said researchers knew very little about the deep ocean. "We'd really be the guinea pigs of this industry, going first in. "It's a risky, risky move." Powerful friends A US-backed research expedition in the 1950s was the first to discover the "enormous fields" of polymetallic nodules in the South Pacific. Waves of Japanese, French, American and Russian ships sailed the Cook Islands in the following decades to map this trove. But deep-sea mining was largely a fringe idea until around 2018, when the burgeoning electric vehicle industry sent metal prices soaring. Mining companies are now vying to exploit the world's four major nodule fields -- three in international waters, and the fourth in the Cook Islands. The International Seabed Authority meets this month to mull rules that could pave the way for mining in international waters. Although the Cook Islands can mine its territory without the authority's approval, it still has a stake in the decision. The Cook Islands also own one of 17 contracts to hunt for nodules in the international waters of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, halfway between Mexico and Hawaii. So far, the Cook Islands has said its approach -- even in its own waters -- would be closely "aligned" with the authority's rules. But it remains unclear if it will proceed without those regulations. "We're not setting time frames in terms of when we want to get this started," said Edward Herman, from the Cook Islands' Seabed Minerals Authority. "I think the time frames will be determined based on what the research and the science and the data tells us." Many of the Cook Islands' South Pacific neighbours want to see deep-sea mining banned. French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a scathing indictment in June, saying the "predatory" industry was environmental "madness". But the Cook Islands has powerful friends. It signed an agreement with China earlier this year for the "exploration and research of seabed mineral resources". "There was a lot of noise," said Herman, referencing the backlash over the China deal. "And obviously there's a lot of interest... whenever China engages with anyone in the Pacific. "And we understand, we accept it, and we will continue." © 2025 AFP
Free Malaysia Today
6 hours ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
US says Indonesia to cut tariffs, ease critical mineral limits with deal
President Donald Trump hailed a 'huge win' for companies as the US-Indonesia agreement eases restrictions on critical mineral exports. (AFP pic) WASHINGTON : The US tariff deal with Indonesia is set to ease critical mineral export restrictions from the Southeast Asian country to the US, the White House said Tuesday, as President Donald Trump hailed a 'huge win' for companies. The deal, first announced last week, notably lowered a threatened US tariff on Indonesian products from 32% to 19%. Goods deemed to have been transshipped to avoid higher duties elsewhere, however, will be tariffed at 40%, a US official told reporters Tuesday. 'It is agreed that Indonesia will be Open Market to American Industrial and Tech Products, and Agricultural Goods, by eliminating 99% of their Tariff Barriers,' Trump said on his Truth Social platform. The US leader added that 'Indonesia will supply the United States with their precious Critical Minerals' and sign deals to buy Boeing aircraft and US agriculture and energy products. The country is a key producer of minerals like copper, cobalt and nickel. A joint statement separately released by the White House noted that, apart from the lower 19% tariff Indonesian goods will face, certain commodities not available in the United States could also be eligible for an even lower levy. 'Indonesia will remove restrictions on exports to the United States of industrial commodities, including critical minerals,' the statement added. Meanwhile, Indonesia will drop its effort to tax the flow of data, the US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official called this a 'revenue grab' on US companies. The country will also remove pre-shipment inspection or verification requirements on US goods imports, and has agreed to accept US federal motor vehicle safety standards. Both countries are set to finalise the deal in the coming weeks, the joint statement said. Indonesia remains among the first of a surge in deals the Trump administration promised in recent weeks, ahead of a deadline for higher tariffs to take effect on dozens of economies come Aug 1. Washington had imposed a 10% levy on most trading partners in April and hiked duties on dozens among them – before postponing their imposition twice. Apart from Indonesia, the US has announced pacts with Britain, Vietnam and the Philippines. Washington and Beijing also reached an agreement to temporarily lower tit-for-tat tariffs on each other's products, although the pause is due to expire in mid-August. The US official said the Indonesia deal was 'worth at least US$50 billion' to the US in terms of new market access and purchases that Indonesian companies intend to make.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Saskatchewan premier signs two MOUs to open up interprovincial trade routes
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has been on an MOU-signing spree, inking two new agreements intended to improve interprovincial trade. While participating in the Council of the Federation (COF) summer meeting in Huntsville, Ont. on Tuesday, Moe signed an MOU with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Ontario Premier Doug Ford. The premiers committed to working collaboratively on internal projects to transport oil, natural gas and critical minerals and make Canada less reliant on its southern neighbour. A renewed push for improved provincial trade was spurred in part by Prime Minister Mark Carney as well as the reality of U.S. tariffs imposed on Canada while other threats, such as annexation, are lobbed occasionally at Canada by President Donald Trump and members of his administration. 'All of our exporting industries have faced far too many bottlenecks in not only their production, but in limiting our ability to provide those products to nations around the world,' Moe said. Similarly, the MOU signed by Moe, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and the Arctic Gateway Group, also on Tuesday, aims to strengthen trade by streamlining access to and developing transportation corridors, specifically the Port of Churchill. MOUs — memorandums of understanding — typically outline the terms of agreements between parties. While they are usually non-binding, they can set the stage for future frameworks. Pipeline push The Saskatchewan-Alberta-Ontario MOU promotes shared infrastructure to get western oil and gas to new to refineries in southern Ontario and northern tidewater to the deep sea port in James Bay. 'I've said that I'm supportive of pipelines north, east and west. I'd like to see all of them built,' said Smith. 'Clearly, for opening up new markets our best opportunity is to build a pipeline to the northwest B.C. coast in order to access the Asian markets. But it should give us pause that we in Eastern Canada are overly reliant on oil that either has to come by way of the United States or has to be shipped in from overseas.' With that comes a unified stance on reversing Bill C-69 — Ottawa's impact-assessment law mandating several forms of assessment before a resource or infrastructure project gets approved — as well as removing the oil and gas emissions cap, tanker ban, and net-zero vehicle and electricity mandates. The Saskatchewan government said in a press release that the MOU will 'explore multiple pipeline and rail corridors, and expansion of processing hubs for critical minerals,' across the signatory provinces. More MOUs The Saskatchewan-Manitoba-Arctic Gateway Group MOU will 'unlock new opportunities for businesses in Manitoba and Saskatchewan to get their goods to market,' Kinew is quoted as saying in a Saskatchewan government press release. The agreement seeks to connect producers, processors and industries in the two provinces to the Arctic Trade Corridor through the Port of Churchill and emphasizes the need to secure federal funding and regulatory support 'to improve connectivity,' according to the release. On Monday, Moe signed a separate MOU with Kinew to move forward on a framework for direct-to-consumer alcohol sales. In the press release, the Government of Saskatchewan said 'improving labour mobility and trade are at the heart of this MOU.' Moe has said an MOU is 'an intentional document,' as he pushed provinces to sign onto the New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA). 'This is actually a binding trade agreement,' said Moe of the NWPTA. Moe also recently signed trade-related MOUs with Prince Edward Island and Ontario. –with files from Cindy Tran Related Saskatchewan's Scott Moe invites all Canadian premiers to join western trade agreement With an eye to Saskatchewan's growing debt, expert sees 'stormy weather ahead' Saskatchewan premier discusses Liberal policy concerns, won't talk Western separation as federal election looms alsalloum@ The Regina Leader-Post has created an Afternoon Headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. Click here to subscribe. With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Atlas Critical Minerals Reports Strong Initial Graphite Recovery of 96.6% in Its Minas Gerais Project
Belo Horizonte, Brazil--(Newsfile Corp. - July 22, 2025) - Atlas Critical Minerals Corporation (OTCQB: JUPGF) ("Atlas Critical Minerals" or the "Company") is pleased to report that initial processing and analytical characterization of its natural graphite ore from the Company's 100%-owned Minas Gerais Graphite Project (the "Project") achieved up to 96.6% of graphite recovery. Surface samples contained up to 15.4% of graphitic carbon. The Project comprises 1,258 hectares in two mineral rights located in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. SGS Canada, Inc. ("SGS") was retained to prepare technical reports under U.S. Regulation S-K 1300. In particular, Marc-Antoine Laporte and Yann Camus from SGS are Qualified Persons for the Project. SGS is well-known as a global leader in testing, inspection and certification of mineral properties and projects. Figure 1 shows a representative sample from the Project area which displays the distinctive metallic sheen typical of graphitic material. Figure 1 – Surface sample (SMAL-00007) with graphitic carbon grade of 13.37%. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: Geochemical analysis was carried out at SGS Geosol, an affiliate of SGS, considered to be the premier analytical laboratory in Brazil and used by major mining companies. Initial results revealed up to 15.4% for the content of graphitic carbon as shown in Table 1. Table 1: Samples head grade. Source: SGS Report 4181-2503 To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: The principal objective of the scoping level metallurgical test program was to design an initial concentration flowsheet to upgrade the graphite content into a commercially-viable concentrate grading range. The concentration tests were carried out using representative samples collected during the 2025 sampling campaign. The metallurgical tests described in this press release were performed by SGS Geosol, an affiliate of SGS, using 50 kg of representative samples from the Project. The process included rougher flotation, regrinding, and five stages of cleaning with two attrition stages in between. There were no circulating loads, and all flotation tailings were final. The samples of the highest (15.4%; sample SMAL-00001) and lowest (1.89%; sample SMAL-00009) graphitic carbon content were used in the testing. The main objective of testing these two samples was to ensure the experimental conditions were suitable for the range of the Project's ore, in order to produce a final concentrate of high grade. The flotation concentrates generated by samples SMAL-00001 and SMAL-00009 were analyzed on a size-size basis. The results summarized in Table 2 indicate that all granulometric ranges achieved grades between 91.3% and 97.7% graphitic carbon. Table 2: Final Product*. Source: SGS Report 4181-2503 To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: * All carbon analyses were reported as graphite carbon ("C-graph"). The analytical methods that were used to determine the metallurgical results included total carbon analysis by Leco on the final concentrates. Using conventional flotation, regrinding and attrition techniques, the final graphite concentrates achieved impressive grades of 91.9% and 96.6% total graphite carbon, demonstrating the strong potential of the Project. Figure 2 shows the final material recovered from concentration of the Company's samples. Figure 2 – Final Product - Floated material and filtered material after vacuum filtration. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: About SGS Metallurgical ServicesSGS Geosol Metallurgical group is recognized as a world leader in the development of concentrator flowsheet design and pilot plant testing programs, and has extensive experience in the development of processing routes for graphite ores. The information pertaining to the metallurgical test program presented in this press release has been reviewed by Orivaldo Savassi, PhD, technical director at SGS Geosol. About Atlas Critical Minerals CorporationAtlas Critical Minerals Corporation (OTCQB: JUPGF) controls a large portfolio of critical mineral rights in Brazil, encompassing over 575,000 acres, and including projects in rare earths, titanium, and graphite - minerals essential for defense applications and electrification. Additionally, we own a quarry for high-quality quartzite and one of our iron ore projects is expected to start production during 2025. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements are based upon the current plans, estimates and projections of Atlas Critical Minerals and its subsidiaries and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Risks related to the Company and its subsidiaries are discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on February 28, 2025. Please also refer to the Company's other filings with the SEC, all of which are available at In addition, any forward-looking statements represent the Company's views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. The Company explicitly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Investor RelationsBrian W. BernierVice President, Investor Relations+1 (833) To view the source version of this press release, please visit Sign in to access your portfolio
Japan Times
a day ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Trump's critical minerals obsession reignites deep-sea mining
The leader of one of the most aggressive seabed mining startups spent years invoking global warming to spark interest in extracting avocado-sized rocks rich in electric-vehicle battery metals from the bottom of the ocean. "We want to help the world transition away from fossil fuels with the smallest possible climate change and environmental impact,' Gerard Barron, the Australian chief executive officer of a company then known as DeepGreen, told a 2019 meeting of the United Nations-affiliated International Seabed Authority, which for a decade has been debating regulations to allow the mining of untouched, biodiverse deep-sea ecosystems in global waters. That's not Barron's pitch anymore. Climate was out and critical minerals were in during an appearance earlier this year before a congressional committee in Washington, DC. His firm, renamed as The Metals Company (TMC), would help "ensure the nation's energy security and industrial competitiveness for generations,' Barron said. "China is close behind.' Barron's new tack is working. In April, President Donald Trump issued an executive order expediting U.S. licensing of seabed mining, departing from international law to unleash what the administration called a "gold rush' to "counter China's growing influence.' The country is set to conduct ISA-sanctioned tests of two seabed mining machines in the Pacific over the next year. Kenny Bolster, Senior Scientist at Viridian Biometals, holds a sample of polymetallic nodules at the Viridian Biometals lab in Pasadena, California on June 25th. | Wolf Image / via Bloomberg China already dominates the critical minerals supply chain on land, and TMC had successfully tapped into the U.S. president's pursuit of China-free metals, expressed as a desire for dominion over Canada and Greenland. The global seabed, TMC repeatedly emphasized as it lobbied politicians and the White House, holds the planet's largest estimated reserves of minerals like cobalt and nickel in the form of black rocks called polymetallic nodules. These cover the Pacific Ocean floor by the billions. In an instant, Trump cleared the way for a race to the abyss to extract nodules, even though seabed mining technology remains under development and commercially unproven. At the ISA's annual meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, delegates on Monday decried Trump's move, with China's representative denouncing the U.S. for "unilateralist hegemonic acts' and attempting to "replace the global standards with U.S. standards.' Within days of Trump's order, Canadian-registered TMC's U.S. subsidiary filed the world's first application to mine the seabed in international waters, including an area it licenses from the ISA. An $85 million investment from a leading Korean metals processor soon followed. Nasdaq-listed TMC's shares, which have periodically languished below a dollar, hit a 52-week high of $8.19 on Thursday. A Silicon Valley startup called Impossible Metals, meanwhile, has applied for a license to explore and possibly mine nodules in U.S. waters off American Samoa, with an aim to raise $1 billion. Then on July 14, a top executive at U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin told the Financial Times the company is in talks to give seabed miners access to international areas of the Pacific it licenses from the U.S. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson declined to confirm the report but said, "We appreciate the Trump administration's focus on ensuring reliable sources of critical minerals, including the ocean.' On Monday, delegates in Kingston ordered a report on ISA-licensed seabed miners at risk of violating their contracts with the body, a thinly veiled reference to TMC and other companies that might also seek to apply for U.S. licenses to mine in international waters. The Trump-triggered seabed mining boom faces significant hurdles, though. While TMC has told investors it expects to begin mining within a year of receiving a license, the technology to extract minerals from the seabed at depths of four kilometers could be years away from being deployed at scale. Its competitiveness with terrestrial mining is unknown, as is the economic viability of processing and refining seabed minerals amid seesawing metal prices and the growing market share of battery technologies not reliant on nodule metals. The U.S. lacks such metallurgical capacity, and it could take years to bring online in the few countries outside of China with the potential to refine nodule minerals. "Given the rapid evolution of batteries and other relevant technologies, there is great uncertainty about the future demand for critical minerals,' researchers at RAND wrote in a recent report. "A seabed mining industry, as a whole, faces considerable opposition from nations and organizations concerned about the potential negative environmental impacts.' The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Gerard Barron, chief executive of The Metals Company, at Times Square in New York on Sept. 17, 2021. | Ashley Gilbertson / The New York Times The countries that TMC relies on for seabed mining and processing technology are among the ISA's 169 member nations (plus the European Union) that oppose unilateral mining in international waters. Amid such backlash, a Japanese corporation, Pacific Metals Company, that planned to process TMC's nodules has now told investors that it would only "launch operations once the international rules are finalized.' "All those parties have a legal obligation to ensure that deep sea mining only takes place through the ISA,' says Samantha Robb, an Amsterdam-based attorney who specializes in ocean litigation. At the ISA, delegates convened behind closed doors on Friday to debate how to respond to TMC's plans. Barron, who once sat with the delegation of a tiny Pacific island nation that sponsors one of TMC's ISA contracts, has been absent this year but he's weighing in from afar. "Amid some noisy grandstanding coming out of Jamaica this month, this is a good reminder ... the U.S. has every right to pursue seafloor resources in international waters,' he wrote Wednesday on X. In a statement, TMC said it was "on firm legal and regulatory footing,' citing the sizable investments it's recently attracted. The company, however, cautioned investors in a May securities filing that a U.S. mining license wouldn't be recognized internationally, which could affect "logistics, processing and market access' for the seabed minerals TMC mines. 'It's going to take some time' More than a thousand miles southwest of Mexico on a September morning in 2022, a yellow, 80-metric-ton machine slowly rumbled across the seabed on tank-like treads, a plume of sediment billowing behind. During a two-month test for TMC, the 38-foot-long prototype vacuumed up 3,000 metric tons of nodules, sending them through a tube to a specialized surface vessel called the Hidden Gem. TMC hailed the trial as a success. Yet any commercial operations are a ways off, even if the U.S. grants TMC a mining license this year, given technological and legal obstacles that must be overcome. Matthew Lavichant, an intern at Viridian Biometals, plates wells in preparation for conducting a test on samples. | Wolf Image / via Bloomberg Allseas, a Dutch-owned, Swiss-registered offshore engineering and construction company, developed the technology, the world's only working prototype of a nodule mining system. The company supplies the apparatus to TMC and is its second-largest shareholder. To meet TMC's production targets, it must now build a much bigger version capable of harvesting nodules nearly around the clock under crushing pressure far from shore. A U.S. seabed mining license, however, would require TMC to deploy American-built and owned vessels. How the companies would comply with that mandate is unclear. Allseas said in a statement that it would take about two years to engineer the technical systems to support full-scale mining but it won't begin that work "until we are confident that all relevant regulatory conditions are met.' Allseas, which itself owns an ISA-licensed seabed mining company, has come under pressure from Dutch politicians and activists not to provide technology for unilateral mining. A laboratory ball mill used to pulverize polymetallic nodules. A bioreactor that contains polymetallic nodule bits and microbes. | Wolf Image / via Bloomberg TMC says it can't comment while its U.S. mining license application is under review. But in a May 14 securities filing the company said it's "evaluating U.S.-based vessel' options. However, the U.S. hasn't built a specialized seabed mining ship like the Hidden Gem, and only eight U.S. ocean-going bulk cargo carriers — large ships that can hold tens of thousands of pounds of nodules and transport them to shore — are in service. Seven of them are at or near the end of their lifespan, according to a 2024 U.S. Maritime Administration report. Impossible Metals uses a nodule collector, called Eureka, that's designed to hover above the ocean floor, its robotic claws selecting individual nodules that its artificial intelligence program determines aren't inhabited by marine organisms. (Scientists estimate that at least 30% to 40% of deep ocean life in the seabed targeted for mining live on nodules.) The company has delayed a planned trial of the Eureka in an ISA-licensed area of the Pacific until at least 2027 because the technology needs further refinement. And any mining wouldn't happen until at least the early 2030s. Impossible Metals' mining license application is for U.S. waters, not areas controlled by ISA. "That's far less controversial,' said CEO Oliver Gunasekara. "But obviously it's going to take some time.' What it takes to process a nodule In a small lab in Pasadena, California, scientists at an Impossible Metals spinoff called Viridian Biometals are trying to crack a problem about as challenging as pulling nodules out of the abyss: getting the metals out of the nodules. Nodule minerals precipitate out of seawater, forming layers around a piece of whale bone, a shark tooth or another small object at the rate of a few millimeters every million years. Unlike terrestrial minerals, where a couple of different metals might be found together in a deposit, nodules contain nickel, cobalt and copper particles scattered throughout every rock, mostly embedded in a matrix of manganese oxide. A laboratory ball mill used to pulverize polymetallic nodules. A bioreactor that contains polymetallic nodule bits and microbes. | Wolf Image / via Bloomberg "The treatment of materials that contain all four of these elements is not something that is commercially done today,' said Lyle Trytten, a veteran of the metals processing industry and president of Canada-based Trytten Consulting Services. Viridian scientists are tinkering with rock-breathing microbes that oxidize nodules to extract the most valuable metals. On a June afternoon, senior scientist Kenny Bolster opens up what looks like a freezer to reveal stainless steel bioreactors. As microbes inside oxide the manganese bits, they release nickel, cobalt and copper ions into a solution. "All this happens at ambient temperature and pressure, which saves an enormous amount of energy and doesn't produce any toxic waste,' says Viridian CEO Eric Macris. It'll take a few years to assess whether the technology is likely to be commercially feasible. "We love what Viridian is doing but we're just not sure if it will be mature enough when we need it,' says Impossible Metals' Gunasekara. If TMC, Impossible Metals and other companies mine the ocean floor under a U.S. license, then federal law requires the minerals to be processed and refined in America. Aside from Viridian's early efforts, the U.S. has no such capacity. A single facility in the U.S. capable of processing and refining nodules would cost several billion dollars, and could take up to a decade to reach full production, in part due to the complexities of handling an entirely new feedstock, according to Niels Verbaan, director of metallurgy technical services for Swiss testing and certification company SGS. The U.S. tax and spending bill enacted on July 4 allocates $5.5 billion to the Department of Defense for investments in critical minerals supply chains. But the U.S. has suffered a precipitous decline in metallurgical expertise since the 1980s when universities began to eliminate related degree programs. "We are decades behind now, and it's going to be very hard to catch up,' says Corby Anderson, a professor of metallurgical and materials engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. New immigration restrictions will also make it harder to recruit engineering talent from overseas. Samples of polymetallic nodules at the Viridian Biometals lab. Photographer: Alex Welsh/Bloomberg | Samples of polymetallic nodules at the Viridian Biometals lab. Photographer: Alex Welsh/Bloomberg Wolf Image China has invested heavily in the industry and is now in a position to retrofit existing facilities to process nodules or build dedicated new plants. The country processes 74% of the world's cobalt ore, according to a 2024 report from the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan think tank, while 97% of global nickel ore processing capacity lies outside of North America. China also maintains more than 80% of the capacity for refining those metals into advanced EV battery materials. There's few existing facilities outside of China capable of handling nodules, even if a U.S. seabed miner receives permission to use them and the owners are willing to revamp operations, according to industry executives. "These processing plants are not just sitting there idle begging for feed, they're all in use today,' says Trytten. The 'blue whale' in the room TMC has found one overseas metals processor willing to make the switch. Last year, Pacific Metals Company of Japan fed a 2,000-ton pile of nodules collected by TMC in 2022 into an electric-arc furnace to produce 500 tons of a material. In February, it was smelted into a nickel-cobalt-copper alloy. "These process plants are very expensive to build, they're very complicated, they're very risky,' says Jeffrey Donald, TMC's head of onshore development. "So by using an existing asset, existing operators, you're really taking that capital off the front end and you're really de-risking the technology and operations aspect.' The Maersk Launcher, a ship chartered in 2021 by The Metals Company to explore the potential of seabed mining, in Pacific waters near Rosarito, Mexico, June 7, 2021. | Tamir Kalifa / The New York Times In April, Pacific Metals announced it would transition from processing nickel ore to smelting nodules. But it doesn't expect full production to begin until 2029 at the earliest. TMC has also struck a deal with metals giant Korea Zinc, which is assessing the feasibility of refining nodules into battery materials, a process TMC has so far tested only in the lab. Whether nations would be enabling deep-sea mining through commercial relationships with U.S.-licensed seabed mining companies was the subject of whispered conversations among ISA delegates this month as they continued drafting mining regulations. Trump's move to mine in international waters and TMC's defiance of the ISA was, as French ambassador Olivier Guyonvarch alluded, "the blue whale' in the room. The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea prohibits unilateral mining by any country or corporation. It also requires the ISA to administer the global seabed for the benefit of humanity, with any royalties from mining divided among member states. The U.S. never ratified the treaty, though it had generally adhered to its provisions and still participates in ISA proceedings as an observer. Pressure is growing on member states to not supply technology to seabed mining companies the U.S. licenses, process their nodules or buy metals from them, as the treaty mandates ISA countries treat unilateral mining as illegitimate. Thirty-seven ISA countries support a moratorium on seabed mining until its environmental impacts are better understood. "The risks of bypassing the ISA's oversight are not only legal, they are also economic,' ISA Secretary-General Leticia Carvalho said in a statement. "Product lines derived from ventures that violate international law will carry reputational and legal concerns that increase the risk of the investment and can undermine its return.' Pacific Metals appears to have gotten the message. In a recent investor briefing, the company, which did not respond to requests for comment, emphasized that when it comes to nodule processing, it considers "international credibility to be a material issue.'
