Key points
- MOBY Robotics received Approval in Principle (AiP) from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) for its Mineral Production Platform (MPP).
- The approved configuration is the 25-ton-capacity MPP, the industrial-scale version of the platform.
- The MPP raises MOBY’s SmartLift to the surface and handles multiple payload transfers per day.
- ABS found the platform in principle compliant with its requirements for novel offshore concepts, subsea mining, and dynamic positioning.
MIAMI, Fla. MOBY Robotics announced that it has received Approval in Principle (AiP) from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) for its commercial-scale Mineral Production Platform (MPP), marking a major milestone in the development of MOBY’s system for recovering critical minerals from the ocean floor at commercial scale. The AiP confirms the feasibility of the MPP’s conceptual engineering and delivers independent, third-party validation of the platform’s design.
The approved configuration is the 25-ton-capacity MPP, the industrial-scale version of the platform. The MPP serves as the autonomously operated surface interface between the seafloor and a mineral transport vessel, raising MOBY’s SmartLift to the surface and handling multiple payload transfers per day. Dynamically positioned, it is designed to remain on station year-round and operate continuously for multiple decades without returning to port between campaigns, creating a flexible, high-throughput production and transfer system that reduces the complexity traditionally associated with conventional deep-sea mineral recovery.
In granting the AiP, ABS reviewed the MPP’s conceptual engineering and determined that the proposed platform is, in principle, in compliance with applicable ABS requirements for novel offshore concepts, subsea mining, and dynamic positioning. The ABS AiP provides an independent technical assessment and establishes an important foundation for advancing the overall mineral system toward construction, classification, and future offshore deployment.
“This ABS Approval in Principle is a major milestone for MOBY Robotics and validates the engineering approach behind our Mineral Production Platform,” said Alex Petersen, CEO of MOBY Robotics. “We’re building an integrated system that combines autonomous subsea collection with surface production and mineral transfer. This approval gives us a strong foundation as we move from a validated design into construction and offshore deployment.”
