Impossible Metals

Key points Jake Russell, CEO of Orpheus Ocean, discusses the Orpheus AUV, an autonomous underwater vehicle developed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in collaboration with NASA Jet Propulsion Lab for deep-sea surveying and sampling. A fleet of five Orpheus AUVs achieves roughly three…

Key points CTO Jason Gillum tours the Collingwood, Canada facility, showing the Eureka 1 prototype, the shallow-water system used for the company’s first autonomous nodule pickup and first demonstration of its buoyancy engines. A dedicated test tank room houses a hexapod system mounted…

Key points Four-day pilot collector test planned for January-February 2026 in the BGR contract area of the Clarion Clipperton Zone, with two modes operating at 90% and 50% collection efficiency over 4,500 and 6,700 square meters respectively. Plume modeling shows 95% of suspended sediment…

Key points Juan Ignacio Guzmán, CEO of mining consultancy GEM, presents an epistemological framework for analyzing criticism of deep-sea polymetallic nodule mining, distinguishing justified beliefs from unsupported opinions and speculation. Guzmán’s team compiled 29 propositions drawn…

Key points Impossible Metals is optimizing three characteristics of its picking system at once: accuracy, speed, and minimizing sediment disturbance. The company says it is now achieving close to its techno-economic targets on accuracy and speed of picks. Sediment disturbance reduction is…

Key points Impossible Metals demonstrates a life-detection system in a tow-tank test, showing objects within a marked green circle being left unpicked. The system allows the exclusion zone’s circle diameter to be adjusted.