2 April 2024, 12:14pm EDT

The Metals Company Under Huge Financial Pressure

The Metals Company Subsea mining
Source:
Deep Sea Mining Campaign

Significant cracks are showing in The Metals Company's (TMC) financial stability following their recent investor update. Andy Whitmore, Finance Advocacy Officer for the Deep Sea Mining Campaign, focuses on the recent financial report, exposing risks and failures in both funding and environmental responsibility. "The stark drop in TMC's share price from USD$1.60 to USD$1.34, following their investor update, clearly indicates a loss of investor faith despite a hard sell from the company that all is well. This decline by the close of business the next day, shows that investors are seeing through the spin and recognising the true state of the company's financial health" says Whitmore.

TMC's financial struggles, as detailed in their latest report, reveal a company under financial pressure. "TMC's current situation is dire," says Whitmore. "They're in a race against time - desperate to gain approval for commercial mining in July 2024 before they run out of funds". The current round of ISA negotiations suggests there is little likelihood that regulations will be finalised by July. Despite this TMC maintains they will apply for a licence to mine.

TMC's report shows a rapid decrease in cash reserves, with under $7 million cash in hand at the end of 2023, while their costs were $15 million in the last 3 months of that year alone. The report outlines options for loans and the last resort step of issuing new shares which would dilute the ownership of current shareholders. However, neither of these are likely to realise TMC’s target of mining in early 2026. To add to their woes, the company has admitted to mistakes in its accounting procedures, and could well face new litigation on top of the legal actions already filed against the company.

Dr. Helen Rosenbaum, Research Coordinator also casts doubt on TMC's environmental claims regarding deep-sea mining. "The so-called comprehensive data set is not sufficient to quell concerns," she says. "We need thorough, transparent, independent scrutiny over their Environmental Impact Statement."

The science based production, Blue Peril presents oceanographic modelling that is a world first visual investigation of deep sea mining impacts, conducted independently of mining interests. Blue Peril predicts it would take only 3 months before the national waters of Hawai’i and Kiribati are contaminated by the wastewater TMC plans to discharge at 1 km depth in its Tonga licence area.

“TMC attempts to compare Blue Peril’s modelling of the pollution expected from commercial scale operations - akin to a 24/7 tailings discharge - to the sediment plumes generated in their tests by small scale mining prototypes on the seafloor. This is comparing apples with pears in a manner that suggests they don't understand the parameters of their own research let alone ours” says Dr Rosenbaum.

For more Information:

Andy Whitmore, +44 7754 395597 [email protected]

Dr Helen Rosenbaum, +61 413 201 793 [email protected]

 

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