Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Please contact our team if you have any questions that aren’t covered here or would like to discuss your questions or feedback with Impossible Metals.
Deep Sea Mining & Other Industry Glossary
Abyssal plains = underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between 3,000 and 6,000 meters.
AUV (Autonomous underwater vehicle) = underwater robots that can explore the ocean without a pilot or tether. Battery powered.
Biodiversity = biological diversity among and within plant and animal species in an environment.
Bulk carrier or bulker vessel = merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo such as nodules.
CAGR ( compound annual growth rate) = business, economics and investing term representing the mean annualized growth rate for compounding values over a given time period.
CCZ (Clarion-Clipperton Zone) = large area in the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii to Mexico.
Container ship or box ship = cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers.
CFC (Cobalt-rich Ferromanganese Crusts) = ‘Crusts’ which form on sediment-free rock surfaces around oceanic seamounts, ocean plateaus, and other elevated features.
Critical Minerals = Copper, nickel, and cobalt which are essential components in many of today’s rapidly growing clean energy applications. Many governments maintain a list of critical minerals.
DP (Dynamic Positioning) = computer-controlled system to automatically maintain a vessel’s position and heading by using its own propellers and thrusters.
DSM (Deep Sea Mining) = process of extracting minerals from the deep sea..
EEZ (exclusive economic zone) = area of the ocean, generally extending 200 nautical miles beyond a nation’s territorial sea, within which a coastal nation has jurisdiction over both living and nonliving resources.
EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) = series of baseline and technical studies, modeling, and analysis that aims to understand the receiving environment, the nature, and scale of impacts, identify mitigations, consult and liaise with regulators and stakeholders, interface engineering design and mine planning with environmental risks, assess optionality and weigh various alternatives. An EIA provides a formalized and transparent impact assessment that outlines how project pressures cause effects, how those effects work individually or in concert to cause impacts, and predicts the consequences of impacts in terms of their expected magnitude and duration.
EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) = tool for decision-making. It describes the positive and negative environmental effects of a proposed action.
Eureka I, II, III. IV = Underwater robots (more formally called autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs) designed by Impossible metals for selective harvesting of polymetallic nodules from the ocean floor.
EV (electric vehicle) = vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion.
ECS (Extended Continental Shelf) = part of a continental shelf that extends more than 200 nautical miles from the coast.
LARS (launch and recovery system) = device that helps safely launch and recover autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) from a ship.
ISA (International Seabed Authority) = autonomous international organization that organizes and controls all mineral-resources-related activities in the Area for the benefit of humankind.
L(M)FP (Iron, manganese, phosphorus) = battery chemistry cathode
Megafauna = animals of a given area that can be seen with the unaided eye.
NCA (nickel, cobalt, aluminum) = battery chemistry cathode
NMC (nickel, manganese, cobalt) = battery chemistry cathode
PMN (Polymetallic Nodules) = ‘nodules’ also known as manganese nodules, are mineral concretions on the ocean floor that contain valuable metals. See Wikipedia.
PSV (Production Support Vessel) = large surface ship that serves as the central facility for deep sea mining operations. PSVs are typically modified from dynamically positioned drillships used in the oil and gas industry. Their primary functions are to:
- Collect, gather, lift, and temporarily store polymetallic nodules
- Store, maintain and control the dredging tractor and riser system
- Dewater the nodules
- Provide power, control, and guidance to the subsea collector
- House the crew that monitors and runs the operations
The temporary storage of nodules only has capacity for a few days of storage. When full, a Shuttle Transport And Resupply Ship (STARS) is required to transfer the nodules to port.
Note Impossible Metals does need PSV.
REEM (Rare Earth Element Muds) = ‘Muds’ mainly contain rare earth elements in the seabed sediment.
ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) = free-swimming submersible craft used to perform underwater observation, inspection and physical tasks. The vehicle is tethered to the vessel.
SLARS (Smart Launching and Recovery System) = Impossible Metals technology which allows full autonomous operations of the LARS with a vessel without DP and in a wide range of sea states.
SMS (Seafloor Massive Sulfides) = ‘Vents’ appear on and within the seafloor when mineralized water discharges from a hydrothermal vent.
STARS (Shuttle Transport And Resupply Ship) = specialized ships with DP used to supply the mining Production Support Vessel (PSV). Key tasks performed are:
- Transfer of nodules from the PSV
- Transport of those nodules to the processing facility
- Transport of equipment, fuel and provisions to the PSV
- Transfer of personnel to and from the PSV per crew rotas
Note Impossible Metals does need STARS.
UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) = established a
comprehensive international legal framework to govern activities related to the global oceans.
USBL (ultra-short baseline) = method of underwater acoustic positioning as GPS does not work underwater.
TAM (Total addressable market) = metric that estimates the maximum revenue potential for a product or service if it were to capture 100% of a market.
