The Metals Company

06/17/2026

A peer-reviewed reminder that claims of seafloor sediment plumes travelling "thousands of kilometers" was never grounded in scientific data. A new study published in based upon in-field data gathered using innovative thorium-tracing techniques shows the plume stays low, settles fast, with concentrations returning to background levels akin to a single grain of sand in a liter of water within just 1-2km.

Read the study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65625-y

06/16/2026

We have begun publicly sharing many of the key findings of our Environmental Impact Assessment. Learn more about our understanding of the validated environmental impacts of test mining and expected impacts of commercial-scale operations in this summary.

https://metals.co/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Environmental-Overview-Deck-February-2026.Revised.pdf

06/15/2026

Calming the Current - Seawater and sediment that enters our collector vehicle needs to exit the machine. How it exits makes a huge difference. Allseas designed a diffuser system that slows and directs separated sediment to the seafloor, enhancing the formation of a gravity-driven flow that hugs the seafloor. By tuning the flow rate and geometry, we can keep the plume localised and predictable — minimizing spread and keeping sediment where it belongs.

06/12/2026

Smarter Separation At The Source - The hopper inside our Allseas-designed collector acts as an environmental safeguard. Whereas legacy collectors lifted nodules and large volumes of sediment to the surface, our system uses gravity-based separation and countercurrent washing to return 95–98% of entrained sediment to the seafloor, minimizing what travels up the riser.

06/11/2026

Great interview with TMC Chief Sustainability Officer Erica Ocampo on trade-offs when it comes to sourcing metals.

Watch the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Ldhy8-eis&time_continue=0&source_ve_path=NzY3NTg&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fx.com%2F

Episode 106 | Deep-Sea Mining & Clean Energy: The Truth About Criti...

06/10/2026

The science is in on benthic plumes. Extensive seafloor monitoring during test mining showed the plume stayed low and settled fast. One year later, post-disturbance monitoring found that nodules covered by the sediment plume were uncovered again and available as habitat.

06/08/2026

Insightful piece on the geostrategic stakes of seabed mineral development.

Read the article: https://amandavandyke.substack.com/p/the-deep-ocean-imperative-china-isnt?r=1qxd86&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

China's Deep-Sea mining fleet isnt about mining alone. The battle for the ocean floor has already begun. The New Great Game runs 5,000 metres below the surface.

06/05/2026

The bright yellow buoyancy modules on our collector vehicle aren't just eye-catching—they’re core to lower-impact design.

By significantly reducing its effective weight underwater, the vehicle glides lightly across the seafloor, leaving faint ripples rather than deep furrows and minimizing disturbance to sediment-dwelling microbial life.

06/05/2026

A new peer-reviewed paper published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering based upon eight offshore campaigns conducted between 2019-2022 establishes a rigorous baseline of the natural chemical and physical functioning of the marine ecosystem on our initial production area. This data provides a clear picture of how the ecosystem changes over space and time, and the basis against which we can effectively monitor and mitigate our impacts.

Read the paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/14/11/1019

Organic matter production, recycling, and burial processes temporally fluctuate across the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Between 2019 and 2022, we conducted pelagic and benthic surveys in Nauru Ocean Research Inc. contract area D (NORI-D) in the southeast CCZ to esta...