The Metals Company and partner Allseas Group say they have successfully collected 14 tonnes of polymetallic nodules from the floor of the Pacific Ocean in a first test, Kallanish reports.

The pilot collection lasted 60 minutes and covered 147 metres of the ocean floor in the Clarion Clipperton Zone. The nodules containing nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese were collected and transported 4.3 kilometres to the surface via compressed air and placed in the hold of a vessel. It took 12 minutes to move the nodules to the surface.

It was the first such test in that area of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico since the 1970s and shows that the nodule collection system will work, says The Metals Company with headquarters in British Columbia. The operation required 250 people on three vessels.

“With the first nodules making their way from seafloor to surface using an integrated pilot collection system, we find ourselves at a historic moment in the development of this industry,” says ceo and chairman Gerard Barron of The Metals Company. “This is just the beginning, and we look forward to sharing more news as the trials and impact monitoring continue this quarter.”

The test ocean mining by The Metals Company and subsidiary Nauru Ocean Resources Inc (NORI) is being monitored by what the company calls expert industry contractors and independent scientists on a separate ship. They have installed a system of 50 subsea sensors and monitoring stations, plus sediment collection stations and water sampling operations.

Those results will be incorporated into the company’s exploitation contract that it expects to submit in the second half of 2023 to the United Nation’s International Seabed Authority. That agency is considering first-ever rules on undersea mining.

Critics say such undersea mining will pose major environmental problems.