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Biodiversity and Habitat – What does the data tell us?

Key points

TMC says over 300 research expeditions and roughly 9,000 scientist-days have been spent studying the Clarion-Clipperton Zone over more than 40 years, before commercial mining has started.
If every lease in the CCZ were mined, TMC says that would affect 0.4% of the abyssal plain globally, the most common habitat on Earth.
Test mining data cited by TMC shows up to 98% of sediment stirred up during collection returns directly to the seafloor, with more than 95% settling within 1-2 kilometers of the collector vehicle.
TMC says foraminifera had recovered to 30% of pre-disturbance density and 50% of diversity within 12 months of test mining, with community-level changes limited to areas within about 500 meters of collector tracks.

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TMC Subsidiaries Submit Massive Deep-Sea Dataset to Public Database as Company Launches Video Series on Findings of Environmental Research

TMC subsidiaries NORI and TOML submitted nearly a decade of Clarion Clipperton Zone environmental data to the ISA's DeepData database.

onApril 17, 2026

First mining trials in CCZ since 1970s

Key points In 2022, The Metals Company conducted the first mining trials in the CCZ since U.S. companies tested first-generation collection technology there in the 1970s. The trials produced environmental data that builds on NOAA’s monitoring of the CCZ from the 1970s. Two independent…

onApril 21, 2026