The Metals Company

TMC the metals company Inc.
The Metals Company
FormerlyDeepGreen Metals
Company typePublic
Founded2011; 14 years ago (2011)
HeadquartersVancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Websitemetals.co

TMC the metals company Inc.,[1] doing business as The Metals Company, formerly DeepGreen Metals, is a Canadian deep sea mining exploration company.[2] The company focuses on the mining of polymetallic (nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese) nodules[3][4] in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific.

In 2021, DeepGreen Metals was acquired by Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corp (SOAC) in a $2.9 billion special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal.[5] TMC is now listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. Baird Maritime noted that The Metals Company had no revenue or production as of April 2021, and highlighted the company's risky commercialization efforts: "Nobody has successfully managed to commercially harvest the nickel, copper, manganese, and cobalt from the nodules in 4,500 metres of water since interest was first stimulated in seabed mining in the 1970s."[6]

Criticism

Industry observers questioned the company's "green" positioning.[4][7] The Wall Street Journal noted that CEO Gerard Barron previously backed another deep sea mining company, Nautilus Minerals, that "lost a half-billion dollars of investor money, got crosswise with a South Pacific government, destroyed sensitive seabed habitat and ultimately went broke".[4]

Many scientists expressed concerns over the risks of deep-sea mining.[8][9] In response to DeepGreen's efforts in Nauru, over 400 scientists signed a statement in opposition, alleging that it would result in the “loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning that would be irreversible on multi-generational timescales.”[8][10] DeepGreen published an open letter defending its practices after four BMW, Volvo, Google, and Samsung SDI supported a World Wildlife Fund call for a moratorium.[11]

The Metals Company says the harvesting in the ocean is less damaging than the land-based mining activities. Opponents to deep sea mining counter that the damage to the fragile ecosystem at the bottom of the ocean is irreversible and such mining is no guarantee that land-based mining will be slowed. Opponents say the ocean floor contains sea life that does not exist elsewhere and should not be disturbed.[12] The speed of life and development on the ocean floor is very slow, disturbances, even minor, may have long-lasting effects.[13]

Right now, however, there are no established regulations or environmental standards in place. The Metals Company says it’s leaving ample time for those rules to be finalized, but opponents say the company is bolting ahead of the collective efforts to come to a consensus about regulating the deep seas. [12]

New research also sheds new light on the effect of the polymetallic nodules on the sea floor. They have an effect on the amount of oxygen in that part of the marine environment, and removing the nodules has effects that are completely unknown.[14]

In 2024, the company was subject to scrutiny on an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.[15]

References

  1. ^ "XBRL Viewer". www.sec.gov. Retrieved 2024-06-14.
  2. ^ "Mining's Tesla moment: DeepGreen harvests clean metals from the seafloor". MINING.COM. Archived from the original on 2021-08-10. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  3. ^ "A Mining Startup's Rush for Underwater Metals Comes with Deep Risks - Bloomberg". Bloomberg News. 24 June 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-06-28. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  4. ^ a b c Foldy, Justin Scheck, Eliot Brown and Ben (June 24, 2021). "Environmental Investing Frenzy Stretches Meaning of 'Green'". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on June 28, 2021. Retrieved June 28, 2021 – via www.wsj.com.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "DeepGreen to go public in $2.9bn SPAC deal | Sustainability". Mining Global. 5 March 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-06-28. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  6. ^ Bosch, Hieronymus (2021-04-06). "COLUMN | Ocean Mining: DeepGreen to list and become The Metals Company as major car makers and WWF press for moratorium on seabed mineral extraction [Offshore Accounts]". Baird Maritime. Archived from the original on 2021-08-10. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  7. ^ Woody, Todd (2021-06-23). "A Mining Startup's Rush for Underwater Metals Comes with Deep Risks". Bloomberg Green. Archived from the original on 2021-08-14. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  8. ^ a b "The Race for EV Parts Leads to Risky Deep-Ocean Mining". Yale E360. Archived from the original on 2021-08-09. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  9. ^ "Deep-sea mining: An environmental solution or impending catastrophe?". Mongabay Environmental News. 2020-06-16. Archived from the original on 2021-08-10. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  10. ^ "Deep-Sea Mining Science Statement". Deep-Sea Mining Science Statement. Archived from the original on 2021-08-09. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  11. ^ "DeepGreen hits backs at firms opposing seafloor mining". MINING.COM. 2021-04-01. Archived from the original on 2021-08-10. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  12. ^ a b |CNBC: the metals company puts out controversial timeline for deep sea mining
  13. ^ Niner, Holly J.; Ardron, Jeff A.; Escobar, Elva G.; Gianni, Matthew; Jaeckel, Aline; Jones, DAniel O.B.; Levin, Lisa A.; Smith, Craig R.; Thiele, Torsten; Turner, Philip J. (1 March 2018). "Deep-Sea Mining with no net Loss of Biodiversity - An impossible aim" (PDF). Frontiers in Marine Science. 5: 53. doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00053.
  14. ^ Sweetman, Andrew K.; Smith, Alycia J.; de Jonge, Danielle S. W.; Hahn, Tobias; Schroedl, Peter; Silverstein, Michael; Andrade, Claire; Edwards, R. Lawrence; Lough, Alastair J. M.; Woulds, Clare (22 July 2024). "Evidence of dark oxygen production at the abyssal seafloor". Nature Geoscience. 17 (8): 737. Bibcode:2024NatGe..17..737S. doi:10.1038/s41561-024-01480-8.
  15. ^ "John Oliver on deep-sea mining: 'Time that we stop treating the deep ocean as something to exploit'". the Guardian. 2024-06-10. Retrieved 2024-09-01.