Key points
- In 2022, Allseas and TMC conducted the first integrated collection system trials in the CCZ since the 1970s on the Nori D field, lifting over 3,000 tonnes of nodules from a depth of more than four kilometers.
- The system uses a subsea collector with pickup, processing and transfer stages, plus a riser over four kilometers long built in sections from the drill floor, with pumped air at 2.5 kilometers depth used to lift nodules and water to the surface.
- Crew and engineers tested the collector and vertical transport system at different speeds and collected environmental samples intended to support obtaining a future commercial license.
- The future commercial production system is designed for a capacity of 3 million tonnes per annum, and lessons from this trial will feed into a larger collector design for Project Zero.
