Hans Smit, CEO of Ocean Minerals, discusses the scope of the U.S. executive order on seabed mining with host Shayle Khan.
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…”
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.”
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…”
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…”
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…”
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.”