TMC and Kongsberg Digital Announce Next Phase of Agreement to Bring AI and Hybrid Machine Learning to Future Deep-sea Nodule Collection Operations
06 September 2023 - 2:44PM
TMC the metals company Inc. (Nasdaq: TMC) (the “Company” or “TMC”),
an explorer of lower-impact battery metals from seafloor
polymetallic nodules, today announced that it had entered into the
next phase of its relationship with Kongsberg Digital, a Norwegian
leading software company that unlocks the value of data for
customers within the maritime, energy, renewables, and power grid
industries, to further develop the Digital Twin of the deep-sea
operating environment of NORI Area D.
Following the successful trials of the prototype Digital Twin
during test mining conducted by TMC subsidiary Nauru Ocean
Resources Inc. (NORI) in 2022, the parties will now build upon the
system’s capabilities by incorporating additional data streams
which will be used to train AI models to determine key outcomes of
its full production system, including the environmental impacts of
robotic collectors operating on the seafloor.
Ahead of NORI’s expected first production in Q4 2025, the
extensive range of data gathered throughout the water column by a
suite of marine sensors and ingested into the Digital Twin will
enable 3D visualization of deep-sea operations in a dynamic
dashboard for review by stakeholders. The Company believes its
AI-driven virtual operating environment will enable one of the most
transparent natural resource projects in history.
Gerard Barron, Chairman and CEO of The Metals Company, said:
“The Digital Twin and AMS will bring unprecedented visibility to
our NORI-D nodule project, enabling the regulator and stakeholders
to see exactly what we are doing, and when and where we’re doing
it. This is the world’s first digital twin for subsea nodule
collection and in the future, when combined with our AMS, there is
potential for this system to enable operational optimization and
transparency across other projects, whether in the deep sea or on
land. This is a mission-critical system for us, and we could not
have chosen a better, more experienced partner than Kongsberg
Digital, who proved during test mining last year that they are well
up to the task.”
Andy Jones, Chief Technology Officer for The Metals Company,
said: “The hybrid machine learning capability enabled by Kongsberg
Digital’s Kognitwin is important to our future deep-sea operations
and environmental monitoring as it provides us with the proven
accuracy and reliability of physics-based modelling combined with
data-driven models for near real-time predictions and
optimizations. This AI-driven approach will enable continuous
learning and adaptation and enable us to test ‘what-if’ scenarios,
allowing NORI to optimize for efficient operations while minimizing
environmental impacts.”
“In the case of NORI-D there is expected to be an immense amount
of live operational sensor telemetry feeding into the system. For
example, an interactive web-based dashboard might show a mine plan
of the collector vehicle on the seabed, in conjunction with the
production vessel and a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) all moving
synchronously along the same paths over time. Hovering the cursor
over the collector vehicle can callout its speed, direction, depth,
efficiency metrics at any point in time. The regulator will also be
able to monitor the plume attributes in near-real time, and
operators can make adjustments based on this data and conduct
simulations to maintain plume dispersal within predetermined
thresholds.”
The Company plans to build out its AMS as a state-of-the-art,
iterative and predictive system that will use environmental and
operational data to enable TMC to keep its deep-sea activities
within ecological thresholds expected to be set by
the International Seabed Authority. The AMS will draw on
expert opinion and hybrid machine learning to improve operational
efficiencies and potentially reduce environmental impacts over
time.
TMC believes that the AMS that it is currently developing has
potential applications beyond the nodule collection industry and
may look to explore these in the future.
About The Metals CompanyThe Metals
Company is an explorer of lower-impact battery metals from
seafloor polymetallic nodules, on a dual mission: (1) supply metals
for the clean energy transition with the least possible negative
environmental and social impact and (2) accelerate the transition
to a circular metal economy. The company through its subsidiaries
holds exploration and commercial rights to three polymetallic
nodule contract areas in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of
the Pacific Ocean regulated by the International
Seabed Authority and sponsored by the governments
of Nauru, Kiribati and the Kingdom of Tonga. More
information about The Metals Company is available
at www.metals.co.
Media | media@metals.co Investors
| investors@metals.co
About Kongsberg Digital Kongsberg Digital, a
subsidiary of KONGSBERG, is an industrial software company shaping
the future of work by changing how businesses design, operate and
maintain their assets. Businesses trust us for our innovative
carbon capture and storage technology, new energy ventures towards
net zero, voyage optimisation, emissions reduction, and technology
to help balance grids and complex power systems. We are
transforming carbon-intensive industries by providing
industry-leading solutions that extract value from industrial data.
We enable businesses to connect physical assets to an industrial
work surface, serving as one common infrastructure for
decision-making across the value chain.
Forward Looking StatementsCertain statements
made in this press release are not historical facts but are
forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor
provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words
such as “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,”
“anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “should,” “would,” “plan,”
“predict,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “future,” “outlook” and
similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or
trends or that are not statements of historical matters. The
forward-looking statements contained in this press release include,
without limitation, statements regarding the development, use and
accuracy of any technology developed by TMC and its partners,
agents and/or service providers to support its operations. These
forward-looking statements involve significant risks and
uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ
materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements.
Most of these factors are outside TMC’s control and are difficult
to predict. Factors that may cause such differences include, but
are not limited to: regulatory uncertainties and the impact of
government regulation and political instability on TMC’s resource
activities; changes to any of the laws, rules, regulations or
policies to which TMC is subject; the impact of extensive and
costly environmental requirements on TMC’s operations;
environmental liabilities; the impact of polymetallic nodule
collection on biodiversity in the Clarion Clipperton
Zone and recovery rates of impacted ecosystems; TMC’s ability
to develop minerals in sufficient grade or quantities to justify
commercial operations; the lack of development of seafloor
polymetallic nodule deposit; uncertainty in the estimates for
mineral resource calculations from certain contract areas and for
the grade and quality of polymetallic nodule deposits; risks
associated with natural hazards; uncertainty with respect to the
specialized treatment and processing of polymetallic nodules that
TMC may recover; risks associated with collective, development and
processing operations; fluctuations in transportation costs;
testing and manufacturing of equipment, including software and
hardware needed to support the collection, transport and processing
of nodules, including the Digital Twin and the AMS; risks
associated with TMC’s limited operating history; risks associated
with TMC’s intellectual property and the validity, use and
ownership of any new technology or intellectual property subsisting
therein; and other risks and uncertainties, any of which could
cause the Company’s actual results to differ from those contained
in the forward-looking statements, that are described in greater
detail in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in the Company’s
Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (“SEC”) on March 27, 2023, as well as in other filings
the Company may make with the SEC in the future. TMC cautions that
the foregoing list of factors is not exclusive. TMC cautions
readers not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking
statements, which speak only as of the date made. TMC does not
undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release
publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements
to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events,
conditions, or circumstances on which any such statement is based
except as required by law.
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