Topics Archives

onFebruary 12, 2026

Green Minerals 2H 2025 webcast

Key points Green Minerals reported a second-half 2025 loss of about $2 million, roughly 80% lower than a year earlier, and cut full-year spending about 75% to around $4 million. A Norwegian minority government has blocked the first deep-sea mining licensing round, a delay the company says…

Education

onFebruary 11, 2026

Who Controls the Seabed? UN vs. U.S. Deep-Sea Mining Battle

An overview traces the bifurcated regulatory battle over deep-sea mining authority between the UN's ISA and the US's own legal pathway.

onFebruary 10, 2026

BOEM Potential Critical Minerals Sales and Bidder Qualifications

BOEM detailed its process for potential competitive lease sales of Outer Continental Shelf areas for critical seabed minerals.

onFebruary 6, 2026

Innovation at Depth – Make it Float

Key points Buoyancy modules cut the collector vehicle’s effective weight from about 90 tons in air to roughly 15 tons on the seabed, letting it maneuver with a low footprint. Post-pilot surveys showed the collector disturbed only the top sediment layer, leaving ripples just a few…

onFebruary 5, 2026

Impossible Metals vs Conventional Dredging for Deep Sea Mining

Key points Impossible Metals compares its autonomous robotic harvesting of polymetallic nodules to conventional dredging methods used by competing deep sea mining operations. The company positions its selective, robotic approach as reducing seabed disturbance relative to broad-area dredging.…

National Initiatives

onFebruary 2, 2026

Japan Tests Deep-Sea Rare Earth Mining to Reduce Dependence on China

Japan recovered rare earth-rich seabed sediment from 6,000 metres near Minami-Torishima, a world-first test using the vessel Chikyu.

onFebruary 2, 2026

Innovation at Depth – Collect Nodules, Not Mud: The Coanda Effect

Key points TMC’s Allseas-designed collector uses Coanda nozzles, a concept dating to the 1970s, that generate lift through curved flow to pick up nodules without digging or dredging the seabed. The system targets two impact zones: the benthic plume at the seafloor and the mid-water…

Regulations

Polymetallic nodules scattered across the abyssal seafloor

onJanuary 22, 2026

NOAA to map critical mineral deposits in deep waters off American Samoa

NOAA will spend about $20 million to map over 30,000 square nautical miles of critical mineral deposits off American Samoa.

onJanuary 20, 2026

Webinar: Critical and Strategic Minerals; a National Priority

Key points Travis McLing, chief geologist at Idaho National Laboratory, says China controls 67% of global mining, about 90% of rare earth oxide and metal production, and 89% of high field strength magnet output. INL has begun its first pilot test for Perpetua Resources, running an antimony…

National Initiatives

onJanuary 12, 2026

Japan launches deep sea rare earth test near Minamitori

Japan's drillship Chikyu began a month-long test to recover rare earth mud near Minamitori Island amid rising China supply risk.

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