Topics

Key points Gerard Barron, CEO of DeepGreen, says he hopes deep-sea metal collection will let the world move away from rainforest destruction and child labor used to source metals for electric cars and mobile phones. Barron says the environmental impact of collecting metals from the ocean…

Key points Lead Environmental Scientist Adrian Hellman tells CEO Gerard Barron that environmentalists split into two camps: those opposed to any mining, and those like her who use the ocean but see a need for materials to move away from fossil fuels. Hellman compares the reaction to seafloor…

Key points DeepGreen Metals trainee Glorie Baciyunjuze, responding to Launcher Captain Preben Hall, draws on her own experience witnessing conditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where she saw children used in land-based mineral mining. She says Congo’s land mining supply chain…

Key points Geologist Rick Miller of subcontractor Leap Energy describes the Box Corer program, which is classifying, photographing, weighing and recording nodules collected on the expedition. The campaign is collecting 126 box cores from water depths of 4,200 to 4,500 meters. Nodules are…

Key points Nauru Ocean Resources Inc (NORI), a subsidiary of DeepGreen Metals sponsored by the government of Nauru, holds a UN International Seabed Authority contract area of 5,000 square kilometers between Hawaii and Mexico, more than 3,500 times the size of Nauru. A two-month survey…

Key points Kingston Process Metallurgy, led by project leader Trevor LaBelle, is running small-scale test work for DeepGreen on manganese sea nodules using several-hundred-gram samples ahead of a large-scale pilot. The process starts with calcination: crushed nodules are weighed, mixed with…

Key points CSA Ocean Sciences deployed three moorings in the NORI exploration area to track currents, temperature and other water conditions, with the longest running 4,000 meters and the others 500 meters and 32 meters. The team collected water samples down to about 4,200 meters using a…

Key points Crew members describe offshore shifts as five days’ sail from land, with long stretches away from family. One worker likens the project to the early oil industry, calling it “the frontier of a new industry” with potential to sustain generations of jobs. Staff…

Key points Raphael Di Carlo Silva Dos Santos, from Brazil, took part in DeepGreen’s environmental expedition to the Clarion Clipperton Zone. His participation was part of a training program run by the International Seabed Authority.