Global Sea Mineral Resources
Global Sea Mineral Resources NV holds a Belgian-sponsored exploration contract from the International Seabed Authority over 74,990 km² of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, and built the Patania machines that in 2021 collected polymetallic nodules from the seabed at 4,500 metres. It has no mining contract and says it will not seek one until the science supports it.
It is 84.22% owned by the Belgian dredging and offshore energy group DEME. Its head office is at Ostend, not at DEME’s own seat.
News and articles
Overview
- Registered in Belgium on April 23, 2012, as G-TEC Sea Mineral Resources and renamed Global Sea Mineral Resources on September 23, 2014. Belgian enterprise number 0845.548.901, seat at Ostend.
- The exploration contract was signed with the International Seabed Authority on January 14, 2013, sponsored by Belgium, after the authority’s council approved the application on July 26, 2012. It runs 15 years and expires on January 13, 2028, with no extension recorded as at August 24, 2026.
- The block sits in the eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone in three sub-parts. The original grant was 76,728 km²; relinquishment has brought it to 74,990 km².
- Patania I, a tracked soil-testing device with no collection function, was run at 4,500 metres in 2017 to prove that caterpillar tracks work on abyssal sediment.
- Patania II, unveiled on September 21, 2018, is a 25-tonne pre-prototype collector, one third of commercial scale but carrying a full-scale collector head, controlled through a 5 km umbilical.
- Its trial slipped twice, once in 2019 when the umbilical was damaged and again in 2020 on the pandemic, before running from April 10 to May 9, 2021.
- On April 25, 2021, a lifting point separated and the vehicle came away from its cable on the seabed. It was surveyed by remote vehicle, recovered on April 29, reconnected, and the mission was completed.
- The company has funded and submitted to independent monitoring throughout, working with the European MiningImpact programme, which watched the 2021 trial from a separate vessel and returned to the sites eighteen months later.
- In November 2025 it concluded a strategic review, choosing to concentrate on the Clarion-Clipperton Zone and stepping back from exploration inside the Cook Islands exclusive economic zone.
- On August 22, 2026, the Cook Islands Investment Corporation formalised the split of the two ventures it had held with the company since 2016. The company sold its interest in the exclusive economic zone vehicle to Wetstone and kept the international seabed side, which now sits in a new company owned equally with the corporation. The transfers remain subject to Cook Islands and international regulatory approvals.
Contract and equipment
| Asset | Detail | Status |
|---|---|---|
| ISA exploration contract | 74,990 km² in the eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone across three sub-parts, sponsored by Belgium | Active. Signed January 14, 2013, expires January 13, 2028. No extension recorded. |
| Second contract area, through a joint venture | Access to the Cook Islands Investment Corporation contract area in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, under a 2017 collaboration agreement, with a joint expedition run in early 2018 | Continuing, and since August 22, 2026, held through Te Moana Seabed Resources Limited, owned equally by the company and the corporation. The transfer of the exploration interests still needs Cook Islands and international regulatory approval. |
| Cook Islands exclusive economic zone licence | Held through Cobalt Seabed Resources Limited, the vehicle with the Cook Islands Investment Corporation licensed in February 2022 | Sold. The corporation announced on August 22, 2026, that Wetstone had acquired the 49% exclusive economic zone interest the company previously held, with the corporation keeping 51%. |
| Patania I | Tracked soil-testing device, no collection function | Tested at 4,500 m in 2017. Superseded. |
| Patania II | Pre-prototype nodule collector, 12 m by 4 m by 4.5 m, 25 tonnes, tracked, rated beyond 451 bar, four collector heads feeding a drum, sediment separated and returned | Trial complete, April to May 2021. A patent was filed on the collector head in October 2021. |
| Successor vehicle | A full-scale collector with a riser and lift system, to be proven in a system integration test. There is no machine called Patania III. | Repeatedly deferred, from late 2024 to 2025 and now to the early 2030s, and moved into a partner’s contract area. |
| Ocean Rig Olympia | An ultra-deepwater drillship contributed by Transocean in February 2023, to be converted for the system integration test | No public confirmation that conversion is complete. The vessel is not mentioned in DEME’s 2025 annual report. |
What the 2021 trial measured
An independent report by Professor Thomas Peacock of MIT, published on March 13, 2023, after review by an external panel, is the fullest account of what the collector did to the seabed. It is hosted below.
- The machine removed 3 to 8 cm of sediment along with the nodules.
- Between 92% and 98% of disturbed sediment was deposited locally or stayed suspended below 2 metres above the seabed.
- A downslope gravity current carried suspended sediment as far as 500 metres.
- Sensors recorded roughly 4 mg per litre at 1,800 metres from the source, diluting to 0.1 mg per litre at 4.5 km after 48 hours.
- Further papers from the same trial appeared in Nature Communications in 2025 and in Scientific Reports in 2024, the latter describing a new in-situ sediment sensor.
The March 2026 agreement with DORD
The company signed a memorandum of understanding with Deep Ocean Resources Development of Japan for a joint demonstration test, aimed at co-developing nodules inside the Japanese contractor’s licence area. The objective is a system integration test in the early 2030s at depths beyond 4,000 metres, proving a collector, a vertical transport system and a surface vessel together, with a full environmental impact assessment. The work would take place in the partner’s area, not its own.
Ownership
| Holder | Stake | As reported in |
|---|---|---|
| DEME Group, through its operating company | 84.22% | DEME annual report 2025, unchanged from 2024 |
| Non-controlling interest, not named in the accounts | 15.78% | DEME annual report 2025. Transocean is the only outside investor ever disclosed, taking a minority stake and a board seat in February 2023 in exchange for a drillship, cash and engineering capacity. |
The company is not wholly owned by its parent, and describing it that way would be wrong from 2024 onward. It in turn owns a Belgian technology affiliate outright, and since the August 2026 restructure its Cook Islands interest is a half share of one vehicle rather than two.
What the business earns
| Measure | 2025 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Turnover | EUR 1.85 million | EUR 2.72 million |
| Result for the period | Loss of EUR 5.56 million | Loss of EUR 6.22 million |
| Equity | EUR 108.6 million | EUR 113.9 million |
| Non-current assets | EUR 106.1 million | EUR 106.1 million |
These are the company’s own standalone figures, disclosed by its parent. It is a pre-revenue research and engineering business, and the parent writes its exploration spending off as incurred rather than carrying it as an asset.
Listed exposure
There is no ticker for the company itself. The listed route in is DEME Group NV on Euronext Brussels, which had 25,229,482 shares outstanding at December 31, 2025, 62.12% of them held by Ackermans & van Haaren and 12.11% by VINCI Construction. DEME is a dredging and offshore energy group of which seabed minerals is a small development activity carried in its concessions segment, so its shares are not a clean read on this business. Transocean, listed in New York, holds the minority but has not quantified it.