We are well aware of this. In fact, Andrew Sweetman, the lead author of the paper, participates in our scientific roundtables, where we regularly engage with the scientific community and they provide input on our approach. The topic of dark oxygen was heavily amplified a year ago by groups opposed to deep sea mining, based on a single paper.
It is potential discoveries like this one that really highlight the regulatory value of the Impossible Metals approach with our Eureka collection system. Our ability to leave undisturbed high proportions of nodules, which maintain all functions of the ecosystem, including dark oxygen, if proven to be true.
There are several scientific rebuttals and critiques to the dark oxygen paper:
- Paper Says Dark Oxygen Production Thermodynamically Impossible
- Critical Review of the Article: “Evidence of Dark Oxygen Production at the Abyssal Seafloor” by Sweetman et al. in Nat. Geosci. 1–3 (2024)
- Rebuttal of Sweetman, A.K., Smith, A.J., de Jonge, D.S.W. et al. Evidence of dark oxygen production at the abyssal seafloor. Nat. Geosci. (2024)
