Advancing deep-sea knowledge
In 2022, TMC spent 146 days at sea at the NORI-D site with world-leading scientists and expert industry contractors to assess the full environmental impacts of nodule collection.
- TMC’s second annual Impact Report outlines the Company’s vision to create a carefully managed, reusable metal commons, starting with unlocking the planet’s largest undeveloped source of battery metals, as the world seeks to address the climate crisis
- The Company outlines its impacts to date as well as the anticipated impacts and mitigation measures for the collection of polymetallic nodules from the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) of the Pacific Ocean
- In addition to providing operational and environmental program details, the report breaks down TMC’s governance and stakeholder engagement, the regulatory context surrounding the nodule collection industry in international waters and the Company’s relationships with its Pacific Island sponsoring states: Nauru, Tonga and Kiribati
NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TMC the metals company Inc. (Nasdaq: TMC) (“TMC” or “The Metals Company”), an explorer of lower-impact battery metals from seafloor polymetallic nodules, today released its second annual Impact Report detailing the Company’s past, present and expected future ESG impacts, while providing insight into the drivers of its efforts to collect nodules from the CCZ including the global scramble to meet an estimated six-fold increase in the production of metals required for the energy transition.
Gerard Barron, CEO & Chairman of The Metals Company, said: “We seek to create a carefully managed metal commons that is used, recovered, and reused for generations to come, with the same metal stocks serving humankind through countless cycles of technological ingenuity. But to get there, unprecedented quantities of critical minerals will need to be mined in the coming decades. With our second Impact Report, we detail how we can responsibly tap the planet’s largest source of key battery materials to supply the energy transition while minimizing its environmental, climate and social impacts. We introduce our Sustainability Approach and outline our efforts to integrate ESG principles into our strategy before operations begin. As we work toward submitting what we expect will be the world’s first application to collect nodules from the Clarion Clipperton Zone on a commercial scale, I am proud to have this comprehensive road map to keep TMC on mission.”
Erica Ocampo, TMC’s Chief Sustainability Officer, said: “ESG disclosures are a key tool to enable transparency. In addition to reporting our own ESG impacts before we start commercial operations, we are committed to promoting ESG thinking across this industry from the outset. That’s why we’ve joined a broad international consortium to develop ESG disclosure guidance of the material topics associated with marine mineral projects, a key step toward establishing a comprehensive ESG disclosure standard for this industry. We have knowledgeable partners and strong stakeholder engagement to assist us and we’re confident that through our pioneering NORI project we can set a high bar for this industry to responsibly bring to market the energy transition metals that society needs.”
TMC’s 2022 Impact Report, which can be read here, focusses on:
ENVIRONMENTAL
Data collection and sharing for the NORI-D Project environmental impact assessment (EIA): TMC and its subsidiary NORI spent 146 days at sea with world-leading scientists at the NORI-D site in 2022 working toward the completion of our environmental baseline assessment, monitoring program, and post-test-mining impact studies.
Peer-reviewed research: Data collected from the NORI-D site has served as the basis for five peer-reviewed papers completed in 2022, while TMC employees have contributed to three peer-reviewed papers (on lifecycle waste generation, ethical considerations, and visioning a framework for effective environmental management for deep-sea nodule collection).
NORI-D Project comparative lifecycle assessment: TMC commissioned leading lithium-ion battery supply chain research firm, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, for an independent, third-party lifecycle assessment of the environmental impacts of its NORI Area D Nodule Project, comparing the production of key energy transition metals (nickel, cobalt and copper) from polymetallic nodules to key land-based production routes for the same metals. Benchmark’s LCA shows the NORI-D Project model performed better in almost every impact category analyzed than all the land-based routes analyzed.
Safe operating parameters for deep-sea nodule collection: TMC engaged a CSIRO-led consortium to develop a science-based framework to assist NORI in developing an ecosystem-based environmental management and monitoring plan (EMMP) to enable the company to minimize adverse impacts in the marine operating environment.
Operational visibility for stakeholders: In collaboration with Kongsberg Digital, TMC deployed a prototype of its Digital Twin during test mining conducted by NORI in 2022. The Digital Twin will integrate multiple data streams from TMC’s future production system and will enable 3D visualization of its deep-sea operating environment, providing ‘eyes and ears’ to the regulator and stakeholders, and will form a core part of its wider Adaptive Management System which is designed to utilize the AI and hybrid machine learning capabilities of the Digital Twin with expert analysis to ensure operations remain within environmental impact thresholds.
Our manganese silicate product’s downstream carbon impacts: TMC commissioned SINTEF, one of Europe’s largest independent research institutions, to characterize the properties of our intermediate manganese silicate product when used to produce silicomanganese alloys rather than conventional medium-grade manganese ores. SINTEF found that, compared to conventional ores, our product appears to have significant downstream advantages in terms of cost and CO2 footprint and the potential for 7 to 17% higher value-in-use depending on the carbon tax regime.
SOCIAL
Public stakeholder consultation program to scope a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) for the NORI-D Project: As part of its SIA to determine the potential socio-economic contributions of its NORI-D project, TMC subsidiary NORI conducted a broad consultation program to engage stakeholders in the development of a framework to measure and monitor its social performance.
STEM talent pipeline: TMC’s subsidiaries NORI and TOML sponsored 24 scholarships at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in environmental sciences and marine management, as well as additional offshore training opportunities.
Global stakeholder engagement: NORI provided responses to over 600 comments on the environmental impact statement (EIS) for NORI’s 2022 collector system trial in the CCZ.
GOVERNANCE
Our path to deliver net positive impacts: TMC completed a materiality assessment and developed sustainability goals. These goals are being publicly released along with its 2022 Impact Report to inform a broad dialogue with stakeholders about how TMC intends to operate and the feedback from this process will bring valuable insights to refine and finalize a robust set of sustainability targets and KPIs, to be published early next year.
The first environmental, social, and governance (ESG) handbook for marine minerals: TMC announced that it had joined a broad international consortium to develop a marine minerals ESG disclosure handbook. The purpose of the guidance document is to enable consistent ESG disclosures for material topics of marine mineral projects using a standardized approach.
Commitment to healthy and productive oceans: TMC joined the Ocean Stewardship Coalition to formalize our contribution to the Blue Economy and UN Sustainable Development Goals.
TMC’s 2022 Impact Report was prepared using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards as guidance. In addition to GRI, the report references additional frameworks, such as Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board for the metals and mining sector in addition to the marine transportation sector. This report also serves as a complement to TMC’s U.N. Global Compact Communication of Progress for 2022 and illustrates our contribution to the Ocean Stewardship Principles.
To access TMC’s 2022 Impact Report, click here.
About The Metals Company
The Metals Company is an explorer of lower-impact battery metals from seafloor polymetallic nodules, on a dual mission: (1) supply metals for the global energy transition with the least possible negative impacts on planet and people and (2) trace, recover and recycle the metals we supply to help create a metal commons that can be used in perpetuity. The Company through its subsidiaries holds exploration and commercial rights to three polymetallic nodule contract areas in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean regulated by the International Seabed Authority and sponsored by the governments of Nauru, Kiribati and the Kingdom of Tonga.
More information is available at www.metals.co.
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Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking” statements and information within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by words such as “aims,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “forecasts,” “goal,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “possible,” “potential,” “seeks,” “will” and variations of these words or similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements concerning: the timing, terms and size, including the expected proceeds from, of the Registered Offering and the expected additional closings in the Registered Offering. The Company may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, among other things: the Company’s ability to satisfy the closing conditions in the securities purchase agreement; the risk that the investors will not exercise the warrants issued or issuable as part of the Registered Offering; the Company’s ability to access additional funds under the unsecured credit facility, the ATM or otherwise; the Company’s strategies and future financial performance; the International Seabed Authority’s (“ISA”) ability to timely adopt the Mining Code and/or willingness to review and/or approve a plan of work for exploitation under the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS); the Company’s ability to obtain exploitation contracts or approved plans of work for exploitation for its areas in the Clarion Clipperton Zone; regulatory uncertainties and the impact of government regulation and political instability on the Company’s resource activities; changes to any of the laws, rules, regulations or policies to which the Company is subject, including the terms of the final Mining Code, if any, adopted by ISA and the potential timing thereof; the impact of extensive and costly environmental requirements on the Company’s operations; environmental liabilities; the impact of polymetallic nodule collection on biodiversity in the Clarion Clipperton Zone and recovery rates of impacted ecosystems; the Company’s ability to develop minerals in sufficient grade or quantities to justify commercial operations; the lack of development of seafloor polymetallic nodule deposit; the Company’s ability to successfully enter into binding agreements with Allseas Group S.A. and other parties in which it is in discussions, if any; uncertainty in the estimates for mineral resource calculations from certain contract areas and for the grade and quality of polymetallic nodule deposits; risks associated with natural hazards; uncertainty with respect to the specialized treatment and processing of polymetallic nodules that the Company may recover; risks associated with collective, development and processing operations, including with respect to the development of onshore processing capabilities and capacity and Allseas Group S.A.’s expected development efforts with respect to the Project Zero offshore system; the Company’s dependence on Allseas Group S.A.; fluctuations in transportation costs; fluctuations in metals prices; testing and manufacturing of equipment; risks associated with the Company’s limited operating history, limited cash resources and need for additional financing; risks associated with the Company’s intellectual property; Low Carbon Royalties’ limited operating history and other risks and uncertainties, any of which could cause the Company’s actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, that are described in greater detail in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 27, 2023, as updated in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on August 14, 2023, as well as in other filings the Company may make with the SEC in the future. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and the Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether because of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.
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