Caleb
Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific Journalist
A
deep sea mining company leading the charge for the budding
future industry is being accused by environmental groups of
changing its corporate branding from fueling the green
transition to supporting security and
defence.
However, The Metals Company (TMC) said the
claims were not true and were another attempt to try and
stop the industry before it can even start.
The call
from environmental groups follows a press release in
December from TMC, which said it “applauds” the US defence
feasibility study on nodule refining.
It continued to
say TMC, through its US subsidiary, had applied for a US$9
million defence grant to advance feasibility work on a
domestic refinery for deep sea nodules.
TMC’s chief
executive Gerrard Barron also told the US Select Committee
on the Chinese Communist Party in September last year, that
his company, “a Western company”, is leading by about five
years when it comes to mining and extracting deep sea
minerals.
“I firmly believe that in order for the
United States to outcompete China in the critical mineral
space, we must invest in domesticated capabilities to
harvest and also to refine seabed minerals,” he
said.
Deep Sea Conservation Coalition’s Phil McCabe
said the apparent shift to defence reveals the “true
character” of the company.
“They have moved away from
deep sea mining for the green transition and moved towards
critical minerals for security and defence.”
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TMC’s
head of stakeholder engagement head Corey McLachlan said the
accusation suits the narrative of those opposed to the
industry.
“They accused us previously when we said
[the metals] were ideally suited for electric vehicles, that
that was ‘greenwashing’.
“Now the suggestion is that,
because you have the defence industry and ministries within
government that are interested in this for their strategic
importance, they are going to be used for defence and
armaments, and therefore it is bad.”
He said the
company is not in production yet, and just because defence
is interested in the minerals, it does not mean that is
where they will go.
“There is growing interest in
these metals from a diverse source of potential customers
and actors and it is not limited to any one
outcome.
“These metals will be treated like most other
commodities, they will move into the market and they will be
used where they are most in demand.”
TMC has recently
dropped a contract with a Kiribati state-owned enterprise
and is now down to two contracts on the high
seas.
Kiribati’s Ministry of Fisheries and Ocean
Resources had a meeting with China’s ambassador last week to
“explore potential collaboration”.
McCabe said it is a
sign of a flailing company that is putting pressure on the
International Seabed Authority (ISA) to get the green light
to mine.
“The Metals Company is financially on its
knees; it really needs something to move quickly, [it is]
getting desperate.”
However, McLachlan said the
company is not in financial hardship and they pulled out of
the contract because it wasn’t commercially
viable.
“For [environmental groups], their objective
is to look for opportunities to make the industry seem
unappealing.
“As a commercial entity, it is our job to
allocate resources efficiently and effectively, and so we
have determined that the best way for us to use our
resources is to advance our other two projects, which are
extremely competitive when you consider their commercial
viability.”
Deep sea mining has not started yet and
there are no rules for doing so in international
waters.
Despite this, TMC is planning to submit an
application to mine in June by using a legal
loophole.
The company, along with several others, have
also asked the ISA to get a move on with adopting mining
rules, which said they have poured billions into exploring
potential sites and have the expectation of extracting the
valuable minerals.
McLachlan said the letter shows
there is a “widespread sense of frustration within
contractors” by the slow progress at the ISA.
But
McCabe said the letter was another sign TMC is in financial
trouble.
“I have been engaging in this issue on seabed
mining for well over a decade and every company that has
risen up and tried to push through, they have all failed,
and all gone down in burning flames.”
Again, TMC’s
McLachlan said the company was not in financial
trouble.
“It’s simply unfair and unrealistic to ask an
industry to continue to make these investments and to move
forward without providing regulatory
certainty.”
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