TMC
TMC the metals company Inc
TMC (The metals Company) - udate and soem interesting stuff from the financial statement
How Do They Make Money?My next post will analyze the tech more deeply and problems associated with it.
TMC (the Metals Company) is a Canadian deep-sea mining company. They aspire to do this:
harvesting polymetallic nodules from Pacific Ocean floor
processing nodules into critical materials for batteries and infrastructure (like battery-grade nickel, cobalt, sulfates, copper cathodes, etc.)
sell processed nodules on market
Current Businessmodel:
centers on harvesting nodules from licensed areas in Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarion%E2%80%93Clipperton_zone)
Company holds exclusive exploration rights to three major nodule contract ares in the CCZ through subsidiaries sponsored by Nauru and Tonga, and a partnership with Kiribati
-> excess to one of the world's largest undeveloped sources of battery metals on ocean floor
still in exploration and development phase
--> no mining revenue yet!
--> has not generated any revenue from operations!
focused on research campaigns, environmental baseline studys, pilot trails rather than commercial metal sales
completed a successful pilot nodule collection system test in 2022 (recovering about 4500 t of nodules from 4km deep)
conducted follow up environmental monitoring
company funding from:
--> equity investments, June 2021 SPAC merger with $2.9B valuation, major industry backers (Allseas, Glencore 2012 investor), 2025 Raise from Korea Zinc in June 2025 + Warrants and odthers amounting to over 120 Million in Q2 2025
cash runway ahead at least 12 months (from mid 2025) (my estimate)
company acknowledges cash runway and will likely seek project financing, strategic partnerships, or royalty streams to fund capex for commercial mining (look into fincancial statment for more info)
From Financial Statement (On contracts):
"The ISA grants contracts to sovereign states or to private contractors who are sponsored by a sovereign state. The Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (“NORI”), was granted an exploration contract (the “NORI Exploration Contract”) by the ISA in July 2011 under the sponsorship of the Republic of Nauru (“Nauru”) giving NORI exclusive rights to explore for polymetallic nodules in an area covering 74,830 km2 in the CCZ (“NORI Area”). On March 31, 2020, the Company acquired Tonga Offshore Mining Limited (“TOML”), which was granted an exploration contract (the “TOML Exploration Contract”) by the ISA in January 2012 under the sponsorship of the Kingdom of Tonga (“Tonga”) and has exclusive rights to explore for polymetallic nodules covering an area of 74,713 km2 in the CCZ (“TOML Area”). Marawa Research and Exploration Limited (“Marawa”), an entity owned and sponsored by the Republic of Kiribati (“Kiribati”), was granted rights by the ISA to polymetallic nodules exploration in an area of 74,990 km2 in the CCZ (“Marawa Area”). In 2013, the Company through its subsidiary DeepGreen Engineering Pte. Ltd. (“DGE”) entered into an option agreement (the “Marawa Option Agreement”) with Marawa which granted DGE exclusive rights to manage and carry out all exploration and exploitation in the Marawa Area in return for a royalty payable to Marawa. The Company is working with its strategic partner and investor, Allseas Group S.A. (“Allseas”), to develop a system to collect, lift and transport nodules from the seafloor to shore and to subsequently convert that system into an early commercial production system (Note 6)."
The ISA has issued a total of 19 polymetallic nodule exploration contracts covering approximately 1.28 million km2, or 0.4% of the global seafloor, 17 of which are in the CCZ. We hold exclusive exploration and commercial rights to three of the 17 polymetallic nodule contract areas in the CCZ through our subsidiaries Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (“NORI”) and Tonga Offshore Mining Limited (“TOML”), sponsored by the Republic of Nauru (“Nauru”) and the Kingdom of Tonga (“Tonga”), respectively, and exclusive commercial rights through our subsidiary, DeepGreen Engineering Pte. Ltd.’s (“DGE”), arrangement with Marawa Research and Exploration Limited (“Marawa”), a company owned and sponsored by the Republic of Kiribati (“Kiribati”).
All Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarion%E2%80%93Clipperton_zone
https://www.allseas.com/en/what-we-do/polymetallic-nodule-collection#:~:text=4500%20tonnes