TMC the metals company Inc has announced that it has signed a contract for development work and commercial production with Allseas for the development, commissioning and operation of the first commercial nodule collection system in preparation for the commencement of nodule recovery operations in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean.
Drawing on more than four decades of offshore engineering experience and the successful 2022 pilot nodule recovery test in which 3,000 t of nodules were lifted to the surface, Allseas will complete the procurement, integration and operation of what the company expects will be the world’s first commercial nodule production system.
The system will comprise two nodule collector vehicles and their Launch and Recovery Systems (LARS), a riser system, the surface production vessel Hidden Gem, and a transfer vessel. Collected nodules will be transferred to bulk carriers at sea and then transported to designated ports for processing.
TMC and Allseas first entered into a Strategic Alliance Agreement in 2019 and have worked together since to advance a clear pathway to commercial nodule recovery operations. Under the new agreement, Allseas will fund a significant portion of development costs, recoverable through production revenues, further aligning both parties around successful commercial operations.
Gerard Barron, Chairman and CEO of The Metals Company, commented: “This Agreement with Allseas is now the contractual cornerstone of our strategic alliance with Allseas: it establishes a clear commercial framework for how we complete the development and commissioning of our first commercial scale nodule recovery system and start offshore nodule recovery operations.”
He added: “In addition to being our largest shareholder, they didn’t just prove their system works; they worked closely with us to take every opportunity to further refine the design to minimise the environmental footprint based on the extensive baselining and monitoring of the field test and are willing to help us finance system development costs. Together, we are moving from firsts in deep-sea science and engineering towards first commercial recovery operations.”
The offshore production system is designed for a nameplate production capacity of three million wet tonnes per annum and reflects the operating configuration and initial phase of the development program outlined in TMC’s SEC-compliant S-K 1300 Technical Report Summary of Preliminary Feasibility Study of NORI Area D (PFS) published in August 2025. The system is expected to operate with two tracked collector vehicles working in parallel on the seafloor, delivering nodules to the surface production vessel before transport to shore for processing.
In preparation for offshore production, Allseas has completed conceptual and basic engineering for several key long-lead components, including the four-kilometre-long riser pipe, LARS, the umbilical connecting the collector vehicles to the Hidden Gem, and other key components.
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