The Metals Company submits decade’s worth of deep-sea exploration data to ISA

Undersea critical minerals explorer The Metals Company (Nasdaq: TMC) announced Friday that its subsidiaries, Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI) and Tonga Offshore Mining Ltd. (TOML), have submitted data from almost a decade of deep-sea exploration to DeepData, an open database of contractor data managed by the International Seabed Authority (ISA). 

The submission—spanning 2013-2022 and comprising a collection of biological and geochemical samples from across the eastern Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) of the Pacific Ocean between Mexico and Hawaii—builds on a decade of research by NORI and TOML to characterize the polymetallic nodule resource and surrounding marine environment, from the ocean surface through the water column to abyssal sediments more than 4,000 meters deep, the company said.  

The release spans years of exploration in the CCZ and includes: 777 equipment deployments and more than 4,800 environmental samples; 76,000 biological records and 69,185 geochemical data points; Tens of thousands of seafloor images and extensive water‑column data and contributions that now represent roughly one‑third of all CCZ data in DeepData, TMC said.  

The data will be made publicly available through open repositories including DeepData and UNESCO’s Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) as part of the company’s commitment to advancing scientific understanding of the deep ocean, it said.  

With this submission, TMC’s subsidiaries have contributed roughly one-third of all CCZ data in DeepData. The data will also be published to the OBIS-ISA node, where TMC subsidiary data already account for 54% of all biological records—a share expected to increase significantly following publication of this batch. 

“After more than a decade of research, 27 expeditions, rigorously monitored pilot mining tests, tens of thousands of biological records, and hundreds of thousands of seafloor images, we’ve built one of the most comprehensive deep-sea environmental datasets ever assembled,” TMC environmental manager Dr. Michael Clarke said in a news release.  

 “Backed by over $250 million in investment, our findings don’t stand in isolation—they corroborate decades of prior research, including NOAA’s DOMES program,” he said, referring to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Deep Ocean Mining Environmental Study program conducted in the 1970s. 

TMC’s bid to become the first company to gain approval to develop deep sea minerals has been controversial. Environmental groups are calling for all activities to be banned, warning that industrial operations on the ocean floor could cause irreversible biodiversity loss. 

With the Environmental Impact Assessment now complete, the company said it has begun sharing key takeaways from this comprehensive body of work through a series of videos documenting how its data addresses environmental concerns and how innovation has reduced the impact footprint of its collection system compared to legacy technology. 

“Activists often repeat the refrain that ‘we don’t know enough’—but that narrative doesn’t hold up against the evidence,” Clarke said. “The Environmental Impact Assessments produced for the CCZ are, in aggregate, the most extensive ever conducted for any mining project anywhere in the world.” 

As with any resource project, the science is not perfect, and we will continue to learn and adapt after production begins. But it is, by any reasonable measure, more than sufficient to begin monitored commercial operations,” Clarke said.  

“The conclusion has been consistent for more than 50 years: with the right safeguards and monitoring, the environmental impacts of nodule collection can be effectively managed.” 

By market close in New York, TMC’s stock was up over 3%. The company has a $4.3 billion market capitalization.