- An influential group of former U.S. government officials and military officers — including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta — urged Senators to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty (UNCLOS), so “The United States can take its seat on the Council of the International Seabed Authority”, and “resume its leading role in oceans matters.”
- As commercial mining regulations near adoption by the ISA, the officials wrote a letter to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations urging a formal vote on ratifying the Law of the Sea treaty, which has provided the U.S. the largest exclusive economic zone and continental shelf jurisdiction globally and would ensure freedom of navigation for American ships and aircraft.
- UNCLOS ratification remains a legislative uncertainty for the U.S., but the country can still potentially process and refine nodules through allied countries and contractors, and TMC’s offshore exploration and onshore processing campaigns have involved a wide array of American companies and universities.
NEW YORK, March 14, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TMC the metals company Inc. (Nasdaq: TMC) (“TMC” or the “Company”), an explorer of the world’s largest estimated undeveloped source of critical battery metals, today welcomed a letter from around 350 former U.S. government officials and military officers urging the U.S. Senate to re-evaluate a formal vote on ratifying the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) treaty.
The letter, which follows this week’s introduction of the Responsible Use of Seafloor Resources Act (RUSRA) in Congress, was signed by around 189 American ambassadors, 73 generals, 50 admirals, four directors of national intelligence and scores of other distinguished supporters. The co-signatories warned how “China and Russia have taken advantage of our absence to work actively to undermine critical United States economic and national security interests,” and that the U.S. had “already lost two of our four ‘USA’ designated deep seabed mine sites, each containing a trillion dollars in value of the strategic minerals of copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese and rare earths” needed for national security and the energy transition.
Since the turn of the decade, increasing U.S. investment in and prioritization of offshore mineral exploration has been codified through the formation of various bodies including the National Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization (NOMEC) Council in 2020, the Ocean Policy Committee (OPC) formed via direction of the National Defense Authorization Act in 2021, and the declaration of outer limits of the U.S. extended continental shelf in 2023 which declared U.S. rights to approximately one million square kilometers of subsea territory in an effort to protect future economic opportunities.
Although the U.S. has yet to ratify UNCLOS — a legislative step that would enable it to access the vast, untapped critical minerals found in seafloor nodules in international waters — it can still process and refine critical minerals extracted from polymetallic nodules collected in international waters.
In December 2023, President Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act, through which the House Armed Services Committee directed the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy to submit a report to the Committee to assess “the processing of seabed resources of polymetallic nodules domestically.”
About The Metals Company
The Metals Company is an explorer of lower-impact battery metals from seafloor polymetallic nodules, on a dual mission: (1) supply metals for the global energy transition with the least possible negative impacts on planet and people and (2) trace, recover and recycle the metals we supply to help create a metals commons that can be used in perpetuity. The Company through its subsidiaries holds exploration and commercial rights to three polymetallic nodule contract areas in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean regulated by the International Seabed Authority and sponsored by the governments of Nauru, Kiribati and the Kingdom of Tonga. More information is available at www.metals.co.
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Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking” statements and information within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by words such as “aims,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “forecasts,” “goal,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “possible,” “potential,” “seeks,” “will” and variations of these words or similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, TMC’s expectations with respect to the U.S. Senate’s ratification of UNCLOS. The Company may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, among other things: the Company’s strategies and future financial performance; the International Seabed Authority’s (“ISA”) ability to timely adopt the Mining Code and/or willingness to review and/or approve a plan of work for exploitation under the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS); the Company’s ability to obtain exploitation contracts or approved plans of work for exploitation for its areas in the Clarion Clipperton Zone; regulatory uncertainties and the impact of government regulation and political instability on the Company’s resource activities; changes to any of the laws, rules, regulations or policies to which the Company is subject, including the terms of the final Mining Code, if any, adopted by ISA and the potential timing thereof; the impact of extensive and costly environmental requirements on the Company’s operations; environmental liabilities; the impact of polymetallic nodule collection on biodiversity in the Clarion Clipperton Zone and recovery rates of impacted ecosystems; the Company’s ability to develop minerals in sufficient grade or quantities to justify commercial operations; the lack of development of seafloor polymetallic nodule deposit; the Company’s ability to successfully enter into binding agreements with Allseas Group S.A. and other parties in which it is in discussions, if any; uncertainty in the estimates for mineral resource calculations from certain contract areas and for the grade and quality of polymetallic nodule deposits; risks associated with natural hazards; uncertainty with respect to the specialized treatment and processing of polymetallic nodules that the Company may recover; risks associated with collective, development and processing operations, including with respect to the development of onshore processing capabilities and capacity and Allseas Group S.A.’s expected development efforts with respect to the Project Zero offshore system; the Company’s dependence on Allseas Group S.A.; fluctuations in transportation costs; fluctuations in metals prices; testing and manufacturing of equipment; risks associated with the Company’s limited operating history, limited cash resources and need for additional financing; risks associated with the Company’s intellectual property; Low Carbon Royalties’ limited operating history and other risks and uncertainties, any of which could cause the Company’s actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, that are described in greater detail in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in TMC’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed by TMC with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on March 27, 2023, as updated and/or supplemented by TMC’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2023, filed with the SEC on August 14, 2023, and in TMC’s other future filings with the SEC, including TMC’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2023, filed with the SEC on November 9, 2023. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and the Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether because of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.
