The Metals company provides third quarter 2021 corporate update
NEW YORK – Nov 11, 2021 – The Metals Company (Nasdaq: TMCWW) (“TMC” or “the Company”), an explorer of lower-impact battery metals from seafloor polymetallic nodules, today provided financial results for the third quarter ending September 30, 2021 and announced a corporate update.
Q3 2021 Financial Highlights
· Raised gross proceeds of $137.6 million in cash prior to transaction fees
· Total cash and cash equivalents of approximately $112.6 million, at September 30,2021
· Existing cash balance expected to be sufficient to fund TMC’s operations through the third quarter of 2023 when the Company intends to submit its application to the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for an exploitation contract for its NORI-D area
· Net loss of $36.7 million and loss per share of $0.18 for the quarter ended September 30, 2021, with a large component thereof attributable to accrued expenses related to the amended Pilot Mining Test System(PMTS) agreement with Allseas Group S.A. (Allseas) and higher cost of increased offshore campaign activity during the quarter.
“At COP26, the world’s governments are committing to a rapid transformation of energy and transport. What’s catching people by surprise is that this transition starts and ends with metals,” said Gerard Barron, Chairman and CEO of The Metals Company. “To hit net-zero globally by 2050, would require six times more mineral inputs in 2040 than today. If you take nickel —essential for electric vehicle and storage batteries — nickel inputs would need to grow 19 times, with much of this growth set to come from beneath rainforests, our critical carbon sinks. With the capital that we’ve raised in the third quarter and with TMC now a public company, we can play a key role in making sure minerals are an enabler, not a bottleneck for the energy transition by supplying lower-carbon and lower-impact battery metals like nickel and copper from the planet’s largest estimated source.”
Q3 2021 Operational Highlights
· As part of the pilot plant program, TMC has successfully processed nodules into manganese silicate product and a nickel-copper-cobalt intermediate at XPS Solutions facilities in Canada and announced the commencement of the final phase of the program to refine nickel-copper-cobalt intermediate into copper cathode, nickel sulfate and cobalt sulfate at SGS facilities in Canada.
· TMC successfully concluded Environmental Expedition 5C, the latest work package in its $75 million multi-year deep-sea research program to establish a rigorous environmental baseline and to characterize the potential impacts of its proposed nodule collection operations. In collaboration with Maersk Supply Service and researchers from the University of Hawaii, Texas A&M University and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), TMC achieved a world first by successfully sampling pelagic biota at depths of 4,000 meters, marking what we believe to be the first deep MOCNESS net tow in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. This is the fourth offshore expedition this year, bringing the total number of days at sea to 148 days.
· TMC co-hosted an event with our strategic partner and shareholder Allseasin Rotterdam, Netherlands entitled “Engineering the Future with Allseas”. At the event, stakeholders were given the opportunity to preview TMC’s polymetallic nodule collection vessel, the Hidden Gem, currently undergoing conversion in Rotterdam and expected to become the world’s first ship classified as a subsea mining vessel by the American Bureau of Shipping. Stakeholders also visited the fabrication facility in Hejningen where a pilot nodule collector robot is being assembled ahead of the wet test in the North Sea and full pilot collection system test in NORI-D in the Pacific Ocean next year. The Environmental Impact Statement for the pilottest in NORI-D was submitted to the ISA in July.
· TMC appointed Amelia Kinahoi Siamomua, a Tongan national, to its Board ofDirectors as an independent Director, bringing female representation on the Board to 38% of its members.