Country for PR: United States
Contributor: PR Newswire New York
Tuesday, June 11 2019 - 06:00
AsiaNet
DeepGreen and Allseas partner to harvest deep sea metals to meet skyrocketing growth in electric vehicle demand
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 11, 2019 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

-- Allseas, a global leader in offshore pipeline installation, heavy lift and 
subsea construction, will contribute world-class offshore engineering resources 
and cash investment to the partnership 

-- The alliance is expected to propel DeepGreen's leadership position in the 
acquisition of base and strategic metals obtained from vast high-grade seafloor 
polymetallic nodule deposits containing nickel, manganese, copper and cobalt 

-- Deal is part of USD $150m private equity investment round co-led by 
Macquarie Capital and Fearnley Securities 

DeepGreen Metals ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2488278-1&h=4082136015&u=https%3A%2F%2Fdeep.green%2F&a=DeepGreen+Metals 
) and Allseas ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2488278-1&h=3056791322&u=https%3A%2F%2Fallseas.com%2F&a=Allseas 
) Group today announced that they have agreed to form a strategic partnership, 
bringing DeepGreen's industry leadership in exploring for high-grade metals 
obtained from seafloor polymetallic nodule deposits together with Allseas' 
world-class offshore engineering capabilities.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/900332/DeepGreen_Metals_Logo.jpg

DeepGreen recently engaged Macquarie Capital ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2488278-1&h=3531338484&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.macquarie.com%2Fus%2Fcorporate%2F&a=Macquarie+Capital 
) and Fearnley Securities ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2488278-1&h=394074679&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fearnleysecurities.no%2F&a=Fearnley+Securities 
) to co-lead a USD $150m investment round in order to finance the company 
through feasibility studies, targeted for completion in 2023. Allseas comes in 
as a lead strategic investor, which will ultimately enable DeepGreen to develop 
a state-of-the-art polymetallic nodule harvester and riser system to gather 
nodules from the seafloor of the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the Pacific, 
and transport them up to a surface vessel some 4 to 6.5 kilometers above. 

"Our partnership with Allseas will ultimately help us open up a new, disruptive 
source of battery metals for the green revolution and transform the mining 
industry as we know it," said DeepGreen's Chairman and CEO, Gerard Barron. 
"This new industry needs world-class, innovative companies that bring expertise 
from other industries to help us get things moving. Allseas is one of the most 
highly regarded offshore engineering companies on the planet, and we are proud 
to have them alongside us to develop our pilot mining system, and ultimately 
our offshore production system. Allseas is a company founded and owned by a 
creative engineer, and today employs 600+ full time engineers with more than 
200 engineers working in the innovation and R&D function. It's not surprising 
that they have many world firsts to their name. It was important to us to find 
a partner who can bring not just strong offshore engineering expertise but also 
a strong 24-7 production mindset in the deep-sea environment -- something 
Allseas has done for decades in their pipelaying business and recently to great 
effect in the offshore heavy lift industry." 

"Extracting battery metals like nickel and cobalt from terrestrial mines is 
facing many challenges, and the environmental, CO2 and social costs are simply 
too high. Seafloor polymetallic nodules contain more than enough base metals 
that the world needs to get to a clean energy economy, and they require no 
blasting, drilling or digging. Indeed, our life cycle sustainability analysis 
shows that, with regards to NMC batteries with copper connectors for electric 
vehicles, ocean nodules generate at least 75% less CO2 when compared to 
producing these metals from land ores." 

"Together with Allseas, we'll engineer a deep ocean nodule harvesting system 
that will have minimal impact to the deep sea environment, enabling us to bring 
what we call clean metals to market in order to power some of the one billion 
electric vehicles that are forecast to be produced over the coming three 
decades." 

Edward Heerema, Founder and President of Allseas, said:

"We are very pleased to be partnering with DeepGreen and supporting their 
vision to responsibly collect battery metals from the ocean floor. For more 
than 30 years our company has been an innovator in the offshore oil and gas 
industry, and we are now excited to find a new industry to leverage our 
experience, expertise and maybe some of our operational assets. We looked at 
several entry points to this industry and decided that the DeepGreen team and 
their strategy was one we were comfortable with, and in our opinion had the 
best chances of succeeding."

Allseas, a Swiss-based company founded in 1985, is a leading player in the 
global offshore industry well known for having built the largest construction 
ship in the world, the Pioneering Spirit ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2488278-1&h=4082744726&u=https%3A%2F%2Fallseas.com%2Fequipment%2Fpioneering-spirit%2F&a=Pioneering+Spirit 
), at 472M long. The company excels at projects that reduce cost and risk in 
the offshore industry and they will apply this expertise to develop deep sea 
polymetallic nodule collection technologies as one of their core future growth 
areas. Respect for the environment and conducting their operations in a 
responsible and sustainable manner, are core principles of Allseas. 

Operational activities will occur in international waters and are to be 
governed by the first-of-its-kind regulatory framework currently being 
developed through the UN International Seabed Authority ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2488278-1&h=3622596238&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.isa.org.jm%2F&a=International+Seabed+Authority 
) (ISA). As such, the minerals in the CCZ are the 'common heritage of mankind', 
and the mandate of the ISA is to regulate mining activities on the deep sea bed 
while ensuring the protection of the ocean environment and the participation of 
developing nations.

About DeepGreen Metals:

DeepGreen is on a mission to supply the green transition with battery grade 
metals from a new, abundant, lower environmental and social impact resource -- 
polymetallic nodules sitting unattached on the ocean floor. Moving away from 
fossil fuels means electrifying a billion cars and building tens of thousands 
of new renewable power plants. This green transition requires more than a 
terawatt-hour in new battery production capacity, which in turn requires 
millions of tons of new battery grade metals like nickel, cobalt and manganese 
as well as copper. At DeepGreen, we see ocean nodules as the transitional 
resource that can get us there with the least environmental and social damage. 
We are committed to becoming the world's most respected Clean Metals company, 
improving oceans' health through our operations and minimizing our land-based 
impact through zero waste processing.

About Allseas:

Swiss-based Allseas Group S.A. is a global leader in offshore pipeline 
installation and subsea construction. The company employs over 4000 people 
worldwide and operates a fleet of specialised heavy-lift, pipelay and support 
vessels, designed and developed in-house. Allseas have gained worldwide 
experience in all types of offshore and subsea construction projects. Their 
approach is to support clients already in the conceptual design stage, and 
offer services for project management, engineering and procurement up to and 
including installation and commissioning. Allseas do not restrict themselves to 
available technologies; they develop new techniques and applications wherever 
necessary. Dynamism, inventiveness, rapid progress and a no-nonsense approach 
are Allseas' distinguishing qualities. 

For further information: www.deep.green, email: investor@deep.green 

SOURCE DeepGreen Metals Inc.
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