We expect Impossible Metals’ approach to be the lowest cost method for deep sea mining. A fleet of robots has three primary economic benefits compared to dredge and riser-based systems.
The first is the improved economics for a fully operating system. This is achieved through reduced capital expenses (CapEx) by not requiring a dedicated surface production vessel with dynamic positioning for supporting equipment like a riser system. With the Impossible Metals approach, the transport ships pull the robots from the water without needing dynamic positioning surface vessels or ship-to-ship ore transfer. We need one ship instead of two.
The second benefit is the ability to scale the system with the incremental addition of CapEx. A small-scale operation can become operational with a relatively modest initial capital investment. As additional capital is invested, the fleet of robots and, thus, the material throughput can be scaled.
The third economic benefit is the lack of single points of failure. While there are increased points of failure with the fleet of robots, there are no single points of failure, ensuring that the selective harvesting architecture remains operational through these failures.
