Key points
- Impossible Metals CTO/COO and co-founder Jason Gillham presents the V6 update to the company’s techno-economic model, noting changes from V5 including a shift in processing destination from North America to Japan and a switch in ship type from container to bulk carrier.
- The model leaves 30% of nodules undisturbed by mass and about 60% by quantity, and benchmarks the company’s selective-harvesting economics against published terrestrial and deep-sea mining alternatives using net present value (8% discount rate) and all-in sustaining cost.
- A representative first project is modeled with $1.3 billion in total capital required and a net present value of $5.7 billion, scaling from the 2.25-million-ton-per-year Eureka 3 fleet to the 6.7-million-ton-per-year Eureka 4 fleet by year five.
- At full-scale production, the concept profit and loss shows topline revenue of $4 billion and net profit of about $1 billion.
