FAQs Archive

Q: D.6 How do you deal with the complexity of your technology?

We address the complexity of our technology through a modular design approach, enabling easy maintenance and upgrades. Our interdisciplinary team of experts continuously collaborates to integrate cutting-edge robotics, AI, and marine engineering advancements.

Q: D.5 How reliable will your technology be?

Reliability is a cornerstone of our technology development. Our robots are designed with multiple fail-safes, redundancy systems, and real-time monitoring capabilities to ensure consistent performance in various underwater conditions. We conduct extensive testing under simulated and real-world conditions to validate the reliability and durability of our systems. See also this blog post: Prioritizing Reliability: Reducing the Mean Time Between Failures .

Q: D.4 How do you scale to high rates of production?

Our latest economic model is v6. Each Eureka IV, our planned production-scale underwater robot, will be able to deliver 12 dry metric tonnes of nodules to the transport ship every 4.3 hours. The same vehicle performs over 5.5 trips per day to deliver an average of 66 metric tons to the transport ship. 100 Eureka IV robots operating in parallel would harvest 6,600 tons per day. No fundamental limit exists on how many underwater robots and transport ships are deployed. We anticipate a volume production per location of around 6.8 million dry tons of nodules annually.

Q: G.5 How does the cost of Impossible Metals technology compare to dredging technology?

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 eliminating the need for a dedicated surface production vessel to support equipment such as a riser system. With the Impossible Metals approach, the transport ships pull the robots from the water, collecting the ore without needing ship-to-ship ore transfer. The second benefit is the ability to scale the system through 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. We estimate our costs for a production-scale operation will be about ¼ less costly than the cost of a dredging tractor with a riser system for the same rate of production.

Q: D.3 When will your technology be ready for commercial mining operations?

Our technology will be ready for commercial mining operations by 2027. As of mid-2025, we are in the final stages of testing and validation, ensuring our systems meet all performance requirements. We also engage with potential customers to align our development with market needs and expectations. We have also completed the design of Eureka III, the full-size production system.

Q: G.4 What technical risks do competing dredging tractor and riser systems still have to mitigate?

A number of companies have conducted dredging tractor and riser system deep sea trials; however, the ship-to-ship transfer of the nodules has not been tested. The ship-to-ship transfer of the nodules in the ocean is complex and will likely require very specialized transport ships, including dynamic positioning (DP) and dewatering technology. This article includes more details on this topic.

D.6 How do you deal with the complexity of your technology?

D.5 How reliable will your technology be?

D.4 How do you scale to high rates of production?

G.5 How does the cost of Impossible Metals technology compare to dredging technology?

D.3 When will your technology be ready for commercial mining operations?

G.4 What technical risks do competing dredging tractor and riser systems still have to mitigate?

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