Daily Brief Energy/Materials: TMC the metals co and more

Putting science first. TMC’s recent announcement of a deepening of its relationship with Norway’s leading software company, Kongsberg Digital, to further develop its Digital Twin software serves as another indication of the company’s efforts to move beyond simplistic and often alarmist computer models based on little to no actual data and instead to develop robust monitoring and analytical capabilities that can help regulators ensure mining code compliance, while helping TMC optimize its production process, increase operating efficiencies, and further reduce the environmental impact of seabed mining.

Putting multiple tools to work. As with many of TMC’s key system components, the prototype Digital Twin was deployed and put to work during the company’s successful large-scale pilot collection test conducted in 4Q22 that not only collected and transported to the surface more than 300 wet tons of polymetallic nodules but generated more than 200 terabytes of data collected from a suite of marine sensors throughout the water column.

The renewed and expanded collaboration between TMC and Kongsberg will allow for integration of Digital Twin into the broader Adaptive Management System that will use AI and hybrid machine learning to analyze data from the immense amount of live operational sensor telemetry and provide real-time 3D visualization of TMC’s deep-sea operating environment to mining regulators and other stakeholders that can help monitor and assess the impact of seabed mining from operational and environmental perspectives.