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Hans Smit

President & CEO, Ocean Minerals LLC · 1 appearance on the record.

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executiveengineeroperatoromlus.com ↗

Hans Smit serves as President and CEO of Ocean Minerals and Moana Minerals, focusing on polymetallic nodule deposits in the Cook Islands. A subsea engineer with decades of marine engineering experience, he previously led Neptune Minerals and managed offshore mining projects at IHC.

11statements → 10claims → 5claims resolved → 80%fully supported → 3.82/5average certainty → 2.64/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →

4 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 2 not yet assessed 3 not checkable as stated how the 10 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 8 assertions · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 10 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 5 are resolved, 2 are not yet assessed, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Hans argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Smit: Trump deep-sea mining order covers international and foreign waters
“And I think the other important thing about the executive order is that it has stipulated that it's not just US territorial waters. This is international waters as well as other exclusive zones.”
Hans Smit May 22, 2025 ▶ 5:19 What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
50% certainty 3
100% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Hans Smit on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Hans Smit said on Catalyst that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Supported
Smit: Trump deep-sea mining order covers international and foreign waters
“And I think the other important thing about the executive order is that it has stipulated that it's not just US territorial waters. This is international waters as well as other exclusive zones.”
Hans Smit May 22, 2025 ▶ 5:19 What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push
Disclosure
Smit: Ocean Minerals avoids U.S. waters due to weak investor legal protections
“We, as a company, for example, are not inclined to explore in, ah, US territorial waters, ah, because our investors are not given the kind of Assurances and rights that we would get in other areas that would allow us to get a return on an investment if we were…”
Hans Smit May 22, 2025 ▶ 11:36 What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push
Prediction Open · timeframe May 2029
Smit: Cook Islands seabed mining is 2 to 4 years from production
“We probably two to four years away from first production is, is where we are in the cooks.”
Hans Smit May 22, 2025 ▶ 22:49 What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push
Assertion Supported
Smit: Land-based mines require 4x to 8x the tonnage of seabed nodules
“The other thing to consider is that we are bringing up one ton of material, and in that one ton of material, we are producing the same amount of metal As you would need to have anywhere between three and five land-based mines. So for them to get the same amoun…”
Hans Smit May 22, 2025 ▶ 30:50 What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push
Prediction Open · timeframe May 2028
Smit: Ocean Minerals project will yield ~$500M annual free cash flow
“The mining system CAPEX is around five hundred million dollars you know, the processing plant probably around two billion dollars but what, For that investment, do you get in return for your project? So, you know, our project is in anywhere between three and f…”
Hans Smit May 22, 2025 ▶ 31:59 What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smit: Manganese ensures Ocean Minerals' profitability despite cobalt and nickel price crashes
“With the recent crash of the cobalt price and nickel For all sorts of reasons, and that's the topic for a whole different discussion, but particularly those two metals with the depression on their prices, our project remains profitable, and the reason it's pro…”
Hans Smit May 22, 2025 ▶ 34:08 What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push
Assertion Supported
Smit: Seabed extraction technology has been proven since the 1970s
“The technology is known and proven and it has been proven. And incidentally, the first time it was proven was back in the 19 seventies. So the tech for this has been has been around for multiple decades.”
Hans Smit May 22, 2025 ▶ 23:21 What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smit: Ocean mining avoids expensive land-based mine infrastructure costs
“We don't have all the big capital costs of infrastructure, power lines, roads, rails, Dams, et cetera, which means the cost of capital for us is going to be lower. You know, we are going to spend less money building a ship to go mining than what you will do pe…”
Hans Smit May 22, 2025 ▶ 30:28 What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push
Assertion Partly supported
Smit: NOAA research vessels are booked out for two to four years
“NOAA's boats are already booked out for the next two to three years, possibly even the next four years.”
Hans Smit May 22, 2025 ▶ 17:58 What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push
Assertion Supported
Smit: Cook Islands seabed nodules contain rare earth elements
“In the case of the Cook Islands nodules, rare earths as well, which is another thing everybody's hot about.”
Hans Smit May 22, 2025 ▶ 26:21 What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smit: Both the EU and China have invested heavily in deep-sea mining tech
“The European Union has spent a lot of money developing technology and equipment, so have the Chinese.”
Hans Smit May 22, 2025 ▶ 8:47 What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push May 22, 2025 21m
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