Key points
- Cobalt Blue’s consortium partner Glomar Minerals launched a 65-day geological and biological survey of its Clarion-Clipperton Zone license area aboard the RV Tangaroa, departing Tahiti on July 29.
- Glomar subsidiary UK Seabed Resources holds two ISA license areas covering about 133,000 square kilometers of polymetallic nodules.
- The survey is run with Earth Sciences New Zealand; Cobalt Blue CEO Dr Andrew Tong visited the vessel beforehand.
- Data feeds Project Infinity, the pair’s plan for the first US commercial polymetallic nodule refinery, now narrowed to four sites in Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas.
Cobalt Blue’s consortium partner, Glomar Minerals, announced the launch of a geological and biological survey of its licensed area in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) aboard the RV Tangaroa.
The planned 65-day campaign departed Tahiti on July 29. Its wholly owned subsidiary, UK Seabed Resources Limited (UKSR), holds two ISA licence areas that cover approximately 133,000 km² of deep seafloor covered in polymetallic nodules containing manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper, and rare earths in a single ore.
Ahead of the vessel’s departure, Cobalt Blue CEO Dr Andrew Tong visited the RV Tangaroa in New Zealand, meeting with the UKSR and Earth Sciences New Zealand scientific team.
CEO Andrew Tong visited the research vessel ahead of departure
The survey is being conducted in partnership with Earth Sciences New Zealand — a government-owned science organisation formed from NIWA and GNS Science — pairing institutional deep ocean environmental expertise with UKSR’s track record in CCZ exploration.
Data and samples collected during the campaign will feed into UKSR’s resource model and inform the environmental baseline supporting the path toward commercial recovery.
The consortium between Cobalt Blue Holdings and Glomar Minerals is pursuing Project Infinity, an initiative to build the first commercial polymetallic nodule refinery in the United States. Locations for the refinery, designed to refine polymetallic nodules and terrestrial cobalt into market-ready materials, have been narrowed to four finalist sites across Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas. Bench-scale testwork on CCZ nodule samples is currently underway at Cobalt Blue’s Broken Hill Technology Centre.
Learn more about Project Infinity here.
