NEW YORK, March 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TMC the metals company Inc. (Nasdaq: TMC) (“TMC” or “the Company”), an explorer of the world’s largest undeveloped resource of critical metals for building infrastructure, power generation, transmission, and batteries, today provided a corporate update and fourth quarter and full year financial results for the period ended December 31, 2024.
Q4 and FY 2024 Financial Highlights
- Current liquidity available from our cash on hand and our credit facilities of approximately $43 million as of date of filing
- Borrowing capacity from our unsecured credit facilities decreased by $17.2 million as of date of filing:
- ERAS/Barron facility increased from $38 million to $44 million ($41.5 million available); and
- Allseas Group SA affiliate facility of $25 million was terminated by mutual agreement in Q1 2025 as maturity was approaching and no amounts were outstanding, while the maturity of the $7.5 million Allseas Working Capital loan was extended from April to September 2025
- $13.8 million cash used in operations for the quarter ended December 31, 2024
- Net loss of $16.1 million and net loss per share of $0.05 for the quarter ended December 31, 2024
- For the full year 2024, a net loss of $81.9 million or $0.25 per share (compared to $73.8 million and $0.26 per share in 2023)
Gerard Barron, Chairman & CEO of The Metals Company commented: “Over the last decade, we’ve invested over half a billion dollars to understand and responsibly develop the nodule resource in our contract areas. We built the world’s largest environmental dataset on the CCZ, carefully designed and tested an offshore collection system that minimizes the environmental impacts and followed every step required by the International Seabed Authority. But, despite collaborating in good faith with the ISA for over a decade, it has not yet adopted the Regulations on the Exploitation of Mineral Resources in the Area in breach of its express treaty obligations under UNCLOS and the 1994 Agreement.”
“We believe we have sufficient knowledge to get started and prove we can manage environmental risks. What we need is a regulator with a robust regulatory regime, and who is willing to give our application a fair hearing. This is why we’ve formally initiated the process of applying for licenses and permits under the existing U.S. seabed mining code. After extensive legal review and constructive engagement with NOAA and other officials across the U.S. government, we believe the United States offers a stable, transparent, and enforceable regulatory path. TMC USA expects to submit applications to NOAA in the second quarter of 2025. We’re encouraged by the growing recognition in Washington that nodules represent a strategic opportunity for America—and we’re moving forward with urgency.”
Operational Highlights
U.S. Regulatory Pathway: TMC USA LLC has formally initiated a pre-application consultation process with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the Department of Commerce under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act (DSHMRA). Following extensive legal diligence on DSHMRA, NOAA’s implementing regulations and other applicable environmental protection legislation, the Company strongly believes that the U.S. seabed mining code offers the greatest probability of securing a commercial recovery permit in the near term given the ISA’s continued delays in the adoption of the Exploitation Regulations in breach of its express treaty obligations under UNCLOS and the 1994 Agreement.
TMC and PAMCO Achieve a New Nodule Processing Milestone, Unlocking Critical Energy & Steelmaking Materials at Existing Facilities: On February 18, 2025, we announced that PAMCO had successfully smelted 450 tonnes of calcine into 35 tonnes of Ni-Cu-Co alloy and 320 tonnes of Mn silicate products, during a commercial-scale campaign to process a 2,000-tonne sample of deep-seafloor polymetallic nodules at our partner PAMCO’s Rotary Kiln Electric-Arc Furnace facility in Hachinohe, Japan. The process data and operational experience gathered during the processing trial will inform expected definitive processing agreements between the parties.
Extension of Credit Facility with ERAS Capital LLC and Gerard Barron: On March 26, 2025 we entered into a third amendment to the 2024 unsecured credit facility with ERAS Capital LLC and Gerard Barron to increase the borrowing limit to $44 million in the aggregate ($22 million from each of the lenders) and to extend the maturity of the 2024 Credit Facility to June 30, 2026.
Extension of Allseas Working Capital Loan Agreement and Termination of Allseas 2023 Credit Facility: On March 24, 2025, we entered into a Letter Agreement with Allseas Investments and Argentum Credit Virtuti GCV, pursuant to which the repayment date under our working capital loan agreement with Allseas Investments dated September 9, 2024 was extended to September 30, 2025. Additionally, under the Letter Agreement, we and Argentum Credit Virtuti agreed to cancel the unsecured credit facility established in 2023, with no outstanding amounts remaining other than our obligation to pay the underutilization fee thereunder.
Termination of Marawa Agreement: On November 14, 2024, TMC subsidiary DeepGreen Engineering Pte. Ltd. (DeepGreen) delivered a formal termination notice to Marawa Research and Exploration Limited, ending the Services Agreement dated October 1, 2013, pursuant to DeepGreen’s right to terminate for convenience under the Agreement. The termination became effective on January 14, 2025, and we no longer have any exploration rights to the area of the CCZ that was covered by the Agreement. The termination is not expected to have a material adverse effect on our financial position or operations, with non-material ongoing costs and no termination penalties applicable under the Agreement.
Industry Update
ISA Mining Code: During Part I of the ISA’s 30th session taking place between March 17 and 28, Council began negotiations on the 2nd version of the Regulations on the Exploitation of Minerals Resources in the Area (Regulations). Progress has been slow and the Council will not complete the second reading of the Regulations in March. Nauru’s proposed agenda item that sought to provide clarity on the process to review an exploitation contract application submitted prior to the adoption of the Regulations was strongly opposed by Chile and no Council-agreed process for the review of an application prior to the adoption of the Regulations is expected prior to the next ISA meeting.
TMC Applauds U.S. Congressional Mandate for 2025 Defense Department Feasibility Study on Nodule Refining: On December 30, 2024, we welcomed the signing of legislation calling for financial support from the Defense Department’s Industrial Base Policy office to “assess the feasibility of improving domestic capabilities for refining polymetallic nodule-derived intermediates into high-purity nickel, cobalt sulfate, and copper.” The legislation, signed into law by President Biden on December 23, 2024, was led by the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) and calls for the completion of a feasibility study by the end of 2025 for a nodule-derived intermediate refinery which would bring the U.S. closer to addressing the biggest vulnerability in its domestic battery supply chains – nickel refining – as identified in Executive Order 14017 from 2021. In addition, our U.S. subsidiary has an outstanding application seeking a $9 million grant under the Defense Production Act Title III program for feasibility work on a domestic refinery for nodule-derived intermediate products.
New Zealand Considers Withdrawing Support for a Moratorium: In February, Agence France Presse reported that New Zealand was considering withdrawing its support for a moratorium on deep-sea mining. Resources Minister Shane Jones stated: “I personally think that seabed mining has become the last green trophy, so people are tossing around the most absurd, untested theories.”
Financial Results Overview
At December 31, 2024, we held cash of approximately $3.5 million and short-term debt of $11.8 million, with an affiliate of Allseas Group SA ($7.5 million) and with the Barron/ERAS unsecured credit facility ($4.3 million). We believe that our total liquidity including cash and borrowing availability under our credit facility with ERAS Capital LLC and Mr. Barron, will be sufficient to meet our working capital and capital expenditure commitments for at least the next twelve months from today.
Our accounts payable and accrued liabilities balance at the end of 2024 of $42.7 million includes $25.8 million owed to Allseas for various services provided, the majority of which could be settled in equity at TMC’s election.
We reported a net loss of approximately $16.1 million, or $0.05 per share for the quarter ended December 31, 2024, compared to net loss of $33.5 million, or $0.11 per share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2023. Exploration and evaluation expenses during the quarter ended December 31, 2024 were $8.3 million compared to $26.7 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2023. The decrease in the exploration and evaluation expenses in the fourth quarter of 2024 was due to the decrease in environmental studies costs as Campaign 8 which commenced in the last quarter of 2023 was completed in the first quarter of 2024, as well as a decrease in mining, technological and process development costs due to reduced transit and layup costs in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. This decrease in exploration and evaluation costs was partially offset by an increase in share-based compensation costs reflecting the amortization of the fair value of the RSUs granted to officers in the second quarter of 2024.
General and administrative expenses were $8.0 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2024 compared to $6.6 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2023, reflecting an increase in share-based compensation due to the amortization of the fair value of RSUs and options granted to officers in the second quarter of 2024 and an increase in consulting and advisory costs
We reported a net loss for the year ended December 31, 2024 of $81.9 million, or $0.25 per share, compared to net loss of $73.8 million, or $0.26 per share, for the year ended December 31, 2023. Exploration and evaluation expenses during the year ended December 31, 2024 were $50.6 million compared to $49.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. General and administrative expenses in 2024 were $30.6 million compared to $22.5 million in 2023. For the year ended December 31, 2024, we recorded total share-based compensation expenses of $20.2 million ($9.2 million in 2023) of which $10.4 million was recorded in exploration and evaluation expenses ($5.0 million in 2023) and $9.8 million was recorded in general and administrative expenses ($4.1 million in 2023).
Conference Call
We will hold a conference call today at 4:30 p.m. EDT to provide an update on recent corporate developments, fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results and upcoming milestones.
| Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Conference Call Details |
| Date: | Thursday, March 27, 2025 |
| Time: | 4:30 pm EDT |
| Audio-only Dial-in: | Register Here |
| Virtual webcast w/ slides: | Register Here |
Please register with the links above at least ten minutes prior to the conference call. The virtual webcast will be available for replay in the ‘Investors’ tab of the Company’s website under ‘Investors’ > ‘Media’ > ‘Events and Presentations’, approximately two hours after the event.
About The Metals Company
The Metals Company is an explorer of lower-impact critical metals from seafloor polymetallic nodules, on a dual mission: (1) supply metals for building infrastructure, power generation, transmission, and batteries with net positive impacts compared to conventional production routes 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 two polymetallic nodule exploration contracts in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean granted by the International Seabed Authority and sponsored by the governments of the Republic of Nauru and the Kingdom of Tonga. More information is available at www.metals.co.