TMC

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for partiCipating in The Metals Company first quarter 2026 corporate update conference call. Joining us today are The Metals Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Gerard Barron, Chief Financial Officer, Craig Shesky, and Chief Innovation and Offshore Technology Officer, Rutger Bosland. Following their remarks, we'll open the call for your questions. Before we go further, I would like to turn the call over to CFO Craig Shesky as he reads the company's Safe Harbor statement within the meeting of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that provides important cautions regarding forward-looking statements and information about the use of non-GAAP measures. Craig, please go ahead.

Thank you very much. Please note that during this call, certain statements made by the company will be forward-looking and based on management's beliefs and assumptions from information available at this time. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which may be beyond our control. Additionally, please note that the company's actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement. Our remarks today may also include non-GAAP financial measures, including with respect to free cash flows, and additional details regarding these non-GAAP financial measures, including reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in our slide deck being used with this call and will also be posted on our website.

You're welcome to follow along with that slide deck, or if you're joining by phone, access it at any time at investors.metals.co. I'll now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Gerard Barron. Gerard, please go ahead.

Thank you, Craig Shesky, and thanks to all of you for joining us today. Well, as we said during our last call, if 2025 was about a transformational 2026 is about accelerated execution. In the six weeks since our last call, we have several developments to report from TMC, our partners, our regulator, and the emerging nodule industry in general. The big development this week was the signing of our production agreement with Allseas, which will enable us to complete, commission, and operate the first commercial polymetallic nodule collection system. You'll notice that the comment periods in blue on this slide are required to remain open for 60 days, and they represent elements of the compressed, ensuring due consideration for our application and a robust process.

There are no mandatory time limits on other steps, the regulator has some flexibility in how they move through these milestones. We continue to expect the grant of our commercial recovery permit during Q1 of next year. Our strategy has always relied on partnerships. The quality and depth of the strategic partnership we've assembled across offshore operations, onshore processing and refining, and project execution is what has allowed us to move fast. On the offshore side, Allseas brings more than 40 years of deep-water engineering and operations, including a long track record of pioneering entirely new offshore technologies at industrial scale. Across processing and refining, we have strong relationships with globally recognized metallurgical and engineering groups, including PAMCO, Glencore's XPS, Hatch, Korea Zinc, all of whom have already worked with nodule-derived materials.

Together with our partners, we have collected, lifted and processed thousands of tons of polymetallic nodules, something no other company in our industry has achieved. We believe this level of industrial capability around the project is one of the reasons TMC continues to maintain a multi over others in the offshore mineral sector. While others are still exploring, we are already building an integrated collection, environmental performance and management, logistics, processing, refining and ultimately downstream. On May eleventh, we signed an agreement with Allseas for the completion of the development of the first commercial production system and the future operation of this system after expected permitting approval.

Much of this work is already well advanced. In a clear sign of their confidence that this industry is moving towards commercial readiness, Allseas have agreed to fund a significant portion of the pre-production costs, and for these costs to be repaid over time after commencement of production. This agreement is not just a major milestone for TMC and Allseas, but for the development of the seabed mineral industry more broadly. I'm pleased today we have TMC's Chief Innovation and Offshore Technology Officer, Rutger Bosland, on the line to tell you more about our offshore system and operations. Of course, Rutger led the development and successful testing of our pilot polymetallic nodule collection system while he was at Allseas before coming over to join our team to help bring us to commercial operations. Rutger, over to you.

Thank you, Gerard. It is a pleasure to be here today. What you see here are the key elements of the first integrated commercial offshore nodule production system designed for continuous operation. The system collects nodules on the sea floor and lifts them to the Hidden Gem production vessel, where they are de-watered, temporarily stored, and then transferred to transport vessels to be shipped to shore for processing. The operation integrates offshore nodule collection, vertical transport, transfer activities, support vessels, environmental monitoring, and adaptive management, and downstream logistics into a continuous operating model with tightly coordinated logistics. Our offshore operational model has been designed to support uninterrupted offshore nodule collection. A transfer vessel will move alongside and receive nodules from the Hidden Gem while the Hidden Gem system keeps collecting nodules, then moves to the offshore transfer area for loading onto bulk carriers.

Bulk carriers are then loaded offshore and transport nodules onward to onshore processing facilities. Supply vessels rotate crew and shuttle fuel and materials between our logistic base in San Diego and Hidden Gem, and the transfer vessel. These operations require highly synchronized vessel movements, dynamic positioning, and coordinated transfer activities to maintain safe, efficient, and continuous production. To achieve this, our project team and Allseas have conducted extensive simulation and modeling to refine these logistic cycles under real offshore conditions. As engineers, we love a challenge. We are focused on ensuring that our system can operate reliably and efficiently day after day, while integrating seamlessly with production support, transport, and handling systems at the surface to maintain continuous operations. This work has produced what we believe will be practical and scalable operations. We will continue to further optimize every aspect of these cycles ahead of commercial production.

The execution program for the offshore production system is underway. Concept and basic engineering activities for the key long-lead packages have been substantially advanced and completed by Allseas, including for key items like the riser, launcher recovery system, umbilical, and vessel integration works. With these activities complete, we are now in a position to move into procurement and subcontracting activities with suppliers. This program keeps us on track to begin integration and commissioning of the production system in late 2027. The first commercial nodule production system is a major milestone for the company and this industry. It also establishes the operational and engineering baseline for future optimization. As we deploy additional offshore production system, it becomes easier to repeat engineering processes at scale and to incorporate operational learnings across the broader production network.

The team have been hard at work evaluating opportunities to optimize our operations, including large-scale production system, autonomous and remote vessel operations, alternative logistic configurations, and what could potentially be the first nuclear-powered vessels in commercial use, a topic that Allseas discussed during the TMC Strategy Day panel in 2025. Larger production system and wider collector spreads could significantly improve throughput and overall asset utilization, while autonomous and remote offshore operations could reduce offshore crew, fuel, and support requirements over time. We are also evaluating the direct offloading of nodules from the Hidden Gem to dynamically positioned bulk carriers, simplifying offshore transfer activities and reducing transport costs. This growing industry is dynamic. As we scale, the many optimizations being developed to serve the seabed minerals ecosystem are creating credible routes towards continuous reduction of offshore collection and transfer costs.

Though some of these concepts require further development, they highlight the optionality and scalability of our offshore production model beyond the first system. With that, I would like to hand it back over to Gerard. Gerard, please proceed.

Thank you, Rutger. Well, a little over a year ago, President Trump issued an executive order that altered the trajectory of our industry. It provided a clear policy signal that offshore minerals were a priority for the current administration, and that it was willing to leverage America's longstanding legal regime to secure industry leadership. For the last at least nine American companies focused on offshore minerals in the high seas and exclusive economic zones. Seems to me companies now have about 1.5 million sq km of the seafloor under license or application. Like $5 trillion-$8 trillion in contained mineral value. American Shale Revolution helped the U.S. to end its energy dependence and become a net energy exporter.

We believe that offshore minerals have the potential to do the same for American mineral dependence when it comes to critical base and rare earths, provided we establish domestic processing and refining capacity. The national security case for construction of domestic nodule processing and refining facilities has grown stronger. After all four of our base metals were designated critical in the latest USGS list, the administration issued a presidential proclamation warning of the serious national security risks posed by America's near total import reliance for metals like manganese, cobalt, and nickel. More recently, a request for project proposals from the Defense Industrial Base Consortium, which TMC recently joined, underscored the administration's efforts to reduce import dependencies in 13 minerals, including nickel. These domestic actions are unfolding in response to the weaponization of trade in critical minerals.

Several governments are restricting exports of metals such as nickel, manganese, and cobalt, as well as rare earths present in our nodules. A recent OECD report found that nickel, cobalt, and manganese of the 10 metals most affected by export restrictions. These are serious matters for the U.S. to solve, and we will continue working with officials on both sides of the aisle to do our part in the coming decades. To that end, we've been looking at several sites to build domestic processing and refining facilities. TMC USA currently holds an exclusive right of negotiation with the Port of Brownsville over land that could support a large-scale metals processing and refining ecosystem.

Importantly, this is not just about TMC's first that has been sized with the potential to support a broader American offshore minerals industry and facilities de-designed with the flexibility to potentially process terrestrial feedstocks over time as well. The proposed site covers approximately 1,466 acres across two parcels adjacent to the Brownsville shipping channel, with a pre-feasibility study already underway becoming what 12 million ton per annum industrial park. We're approaching this in a disciplined way. There is no capital commitment today, and any further development would remain contingent on government support. I'll just reiterate that we continue to have frequent discussions with the Cabinet departments and agencies named in the and we'll share more information at the appropriate time.

To advance our potential processing and refining plan and a strategic partnership agreement with Mariana Minerals, whose team combines deep industrial project experience with software designed specifically for large-scale mineral processing projects. What attracted us to Mariana was not just the construction experience, but their focus on integrating software, automation, and AI-driven operational systems direct to project delivery and plant operations from day one. Mariana's leadership includes former executives and operators from companies including Tesla, BASF, Exxon, Lithium Americas, with experience spanning mineral processing, EPC execution, and industrial-scale commissioning. The partnership is intended to accelerate feasibility work around the Brownsville site, while also evaluating how advanced process controls, operational software, and digital project management tools could improve execution timelines, capital efficiency, and long-term operating performance.

Importantly, we're evaluating Brownsville not simply as a processing site for TMC USA's initial production area, but as a potential long-term industrial platform capable of supporting broader growth in American critical mineral supply chains. As additional American operators move through the NOAA licensing process, we believe there could be meaningful strategic advantages in developing shared downstream processing infrastructure rather than duplicating standalone facilities. This is still early-stage work, but we believe these are the kinds of long-term industrial partnerships required to build a scalable domestic critical minerals industry. On April eighth, The Metals Royalty Company, TMCR, began trading on Nasdaq. Craig joined the TMCR team, including our current and former board members, Michael Hess and Brian Paes-Braga.

On a personal note, I'd like to congratulate Brian, Michael, and the entire TMCR team on this milestone, and I'd like to congratulate them on their recent capital raise and of the Mesabi Metallics royalty. I'll now turn the call over to Craig to discuss these topics in more detail and also walk you through our financials. Craig, over to you.

Thanks, Gerard. As a reminder, the cornerstone of TMCR's portfolio is a 2% gross overriding royalty on the NORI area, which originated from our 2023 agreement with the predecessor company, Low Carbon Royalties. As part of that agreement, TMC received an equity stake in TMCR itself, whose market capitalization has appreciated significantly, and now stands at roughly three-quarters of a billion dollars, indicating a value for TMC's current 25% equity stake of nearly $200 million. Importantly, we retain the right to repurchase up to 75% of the NORI royalty over time at a capped return, which could ultimately reduce that royalty to 0.5%.

Since listing, TMCR has also announced, as Gerard noted, a proposed royalty interest in the Mesabi Metallics iron ore project in Minnesota, one of the United States' only large-scale sources of merchant DR grade iron ore pellets, with production targeted for the second half of 2026, alongside a concurrent equity financing. It's also worth mentioning that the U.S. Exim Bank previously announced its support of up to $10 billion for the development of a major iron ore processing and refining facility with Mesabi Metallics in Minnesota. I would encourage all of our investors to check out the corporate update webinar held by TMCR on May 13th, just yesterday, and that's available for replay at their website, themetalsroyaltyco.com. Last August, we announced two major technical studies, a pre-feasibility study and an initial assessment.

The PFS on our first production area, excuse me, the PFS is focused on our first production area and established the world's first reserves for a nodule project, while also confirming the project's strong commercial case. The initial assessment extended across the other areas highlighted on this slide in royal blue. These studies were comprehensive and independently supported by multiple qualified persons. They do not include the additional ground where we have priority rights under U.S. law. Because those areas sit close to the zones already assessed in our published studies, we see them as offering substantial further exploration upside. It's important to remember that these studies are point-in-time analyses, which do not reflect certain potential plans, such as the U.S. government-supported processing facility, nor do they reflect every opportunity that we and Allseas might have to reduce costs offshore, as Rutger walked us through earlier.

They do provide a helpful snapshot into the commercial viability of our proposed operations, particularly given the world-first declaration of probable reserves in our PFS for a nodule project. At today's metal prices, or close to today's metal prices, the value reflected in these studies is substantial. Taken together, the $5.5 billion NPV from the PFS plus the $18.1 billion NPV from the initial assessment imply a combined estimated resource of $23.6 billion. Across the life of both projects, on an undiscounted basis, the studies point to approximately $369 billion in revenue and more than $200 billion in EBITDA, and a cost profile that places the project in the first quartile of the nickel cost curve.

Now onto our liquidity and financials. You would have noticed that our liquidity, defined as cash on hand plus our credit facilities, was approximately $164 million as of March 31, 2026. However, I want to be clear, as noted in our earnings release, this is inclusive of $9 million received on the last day of the quarter related to sell-to-cover tax transactions on stock-based compensation granted in prior years, which was then remitted to tax authorities shortly after quarter end. This was merely a bit of a timing quirk, given dates on which the sell-to-cover transactions had to occur following our last reporting period. Once that was finished and funds received, those were remitted to the tax authorities.

Keep in mind that the headline number, reflecting vesting shares that were granted at far lower share prices. We expect a strong alignment of interest between TMC employees and shareholders will continue to deliver results in the years ahead. On to the financial results. TMC reported a net loss of approximately $20.6 million in the first quarter of 2026, which was the same as the comparable period in 2025. Net loss per share was $0.05 in the first quarter of 2026, compared to $0.06 in the comparative period.

Exploration and evaluation expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2026, were $13.3 million, compared to $9.5 million in 2025, due to higher share-based compensation from third quarter 2025 awards, for employee retention and higher PFS costs due to the PFS refresh, partially offset by lower Allseas engineering costs. G&A expenses in Q1 2026 were $20.7 million, compared to the $8.5 million in the comparative quarter last year, primarily due again to the amortization of higher one-time executive retention grants of share-based compensation issues in the third quarter of 2025. I am getting a bit of an echo, so, if anybody else on the line is able to mute, hopefully we can get rid of that.

In Q1 2026, the gain on change in fair value of warrants was $10.7 million, as the value of the private warrants decreased due to the lower share price at the end of Q1 2026 compared to the share price year-end 2025 and the shorter maturity term. On other non-operating items, other non-operating items that reduced the net loss in Q1 2026 included a higher interest income generated from increased cash balances and a gain resulting from the dilution of our ownership in The Metals Royalty Company as it completed a private placement to third parties at a price well in excess of book value. That was partially offset by equity accounted investment losses.

On the cash flow side, net cash used in operating activities was, in the first quarter of 2026, $0.6 million compared to $9.3 million used in operating activities in the first quarter of 2025. The outflow in Q1 2026 is nominal due to a timing difference. As I mentioned earlier, the $9 million of tax withholdings received at the end of March and remitted to tax authorities shortly after the end of the quarter. If the tax withholding receipts are excluded, the cash use in operations would have been $9.6 million, which is in line with the first quarter of 2025. Free cash flow for Q1 2026 was -$0.6 million, compared to -$9.4 million in Q1 2025.

Free cash flow is a non-GAAP measure, I would point you to our disclosure in the non-GAAP reconciliation table that will be posted in the fly deck with our website. We do believe that our cash on hand, along with the undrawn unsecured credit facility from Gerard Barron, our CEO and Chairman, and Aris Capital LLC, will be more than sufficient to meet our working capital and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months from today. TMC liquidity stood at $164 million as at March 31st, including $44 million available from that undrawn credit facility.

Our accounts payable and accrued liabilities balance at March 31, 2026 was $53.9 million, and includes $32.1 million that was owed to Allseas for various services provided, the majority of which is being settled through the issuance of TMC shares as disclosed in our 10-Q. Excluding the Allseas payable to be settled in equity and the $9 million payable to tax authorities, which have since been remitted, accounts payable and accrued liabilities would have been, at quarter end, $13 million. Operator, we would now like to open it up to the phone line for any Q&A.

Certainly. Our first question will be coming from the line of Matthew O'Keefe of Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open.

Thanks, operator. Evening, gentlemen.

Hey, Matt.

Sounds like things are moving along pretty well. I liked one of your slides there. You showed that you have some new entrants, but there are more entrants jumping onto the American offshore industry here. You know, you've shown some other companies and all, and their properties lying about in the CCZ, and also, I guess, other parts of the ocean there. What are your thoughts on these other players, and are you working at all with them? I mean, you have arguably a leadership position in this.

I would imagine there has been some outreach to you just maybe for some best practices or, you know, given that you've done so much environmental work, maybe some advice on that as well.

Yeah, look, Matt, we've been, you know, familiar with some of the other entrants. We know them well. Frankly, you know, the last five years as a public company has damaged my belief in the efficient markets hypothesis, but at the same time, it wouldn't be good for us to be the only ones through the wall here seeing the opportunity. I think what it really signifies is the fact that the capital, the smart money, is flowing into names that are pursuing exploration licenses through the U.S. process as opposed to the International Seabed Authority process. That's clear. The market's voting with their feet.

Yeah.

Are there opportunities there potentially to work with some of these entrants? Sure. I mean, we've done quite a bit of work over the course of, you know, the last several years that, you know, many other people might wanna catch up to. Of course, we released some of our environmental data just a few weeks ago. There really is, I think, a recognition that, you know, many of the new entrants have some catch-up to do. They're starting on, you know, exploration type work, whereas TMC has done much of that because we were preparing to launch an application to the ISA process with some of that data. There will be, I think, a catch-up period for others, and that creates opportunities.

One thing to really focus on, and by the way, you would have noticed there was an announcement within the last couple of months that, you know, the team at Deep Sea Vision, we have an MOU to collaborate potentially together, whether it's on some offshore exploration side, initiatives or potentially down the road on processing and refining. We do want to be able to help the United States create an ecosystem that can potentially create dominance in the metal processing and refining for nickel, copper, cobalt, manganese, potentially rare earths and other metals. To do that, it would be very helpful to say, "Hey, TMC will be the center of this hub." Perhaps one day that could be a destination for some other entrants as they catch up to some of the offshore work that TMC has done.

We really have been in a unique position where the work that we've done has allowed us to be the one entrant so far who's been able to apply for the consolidated application process because we've been prepared with that work over the last 15 years and about $700 million in cumulative spending. The answer, Matt, is we welcome the capital flowing into space. We know some of the new players. I think there will be future opportunities to work together.

No, absolutely. It definitely demonstrates that there's increasing confidence in the space, so I think that's a positive. If I could ask just one other quick question, maybe clarification. You are working on some pre-feasibility study, was it, for the Texas refinery, processing refinery. Is that right? Is there gonna be something released to the markets sort of end of year or something like that, just to get a sense of what that might look like?

Yeah. I think our focus, Matt, is really on the feasibility work, specifically for the potential plant for processing and refining in Texas. That feasibility work really focused on here's, you know, the detail on everything that needs to go into the planning and construction and operation of that plant. That is really the prerequisite to unlock some of the potential government capital that we know, you know, is sitting ready to fund major projects that can truly move the needle. I would say our focus is gonna be on that onshore feasibility work. There may be opportunities to then say, right, we're working on the pre-feasibility side for the plant expansion down the road, let's say to 12 million tons or more.

Of course, you know, we put out the pre-feasibility study for the NORI-D area in August of last year. We had the benefit from, you know, several years of talking about the potential commercial terms with our partner, Allseas. At some point, perhaps there might be an opportunity to, you know, provide some updates to that, but our focus in the near term is gonna be the detailed feasibility work that might be able to unlock access to government capital.

All right. Sounds good. We'll look for the government partnership perhaps in the future. That's great. That's all for me. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Our next question will be coming from the line of Dmitry Silversteyn of Water Tower Research. Your line is open.

Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my call. I just have a couple of follow-up questions, if I may. When you talked about reducing or the opportunity to reduce the operating costs or optimize the costs of offshore collection and transfer portion of your operating expenses, you know, there's a lot of stuff in here, like, you know, autonomy and going to nuclear that seem to be pretty far into the future. As you're ramping up your sort of first production of $3 million tons, how are you thinking about sort of more near term, more realistic abilities to lower the production and transport costs and lower your offshore operating expenses?

Yeah, that's a very good.

Yeah, hi, Dmitry. Sorry. Yeah, Rutger, go for it. Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you, Dmitry. That's a very good question. As you rightfully indicate, there's a few items that are more future-focused, but on the short term, optimizations in energy use and offshore logistics are definitely something that can be implemented within the short term. We're talking about getting the 1st vessel operating and then start implementing some of those already.

Okay. Then to follow up on the previous question about Brian [Paes-Braga's] facility, you're looking at, I think, 12 million ton processing complex. Your phase one at least calls for about 3 million tons a year of wet nodules going up to potentially 7 million as you expand to three collectors. Are you leaving that much room for sort of third-party processing or do you have expectations of filling that 12 million ton capacity through the nodules that you yourself collect pretty quickly after the startup at the end of 2027, early 2028?

No, I think this is one of those industries where scale really flows through to the bottom line, Dmitry. It's our ambition to put as much of that 12 million tons off our own license areas. However, we also wanna be really flexible because, you know, when you, when you go and establish a processing facility, there is so much investment in civil engineering and, you know, securing the ground and putting the roads in and securing power supply that, you know, the marginal cost of adding another line for another operator can be very attractive. Of course, you know, we want to have the welcome mat out to other operators. We see it as an opportunity to do deals that will be very beneficial for the industry and very beneficial for, you know, the TMC shareholders as well.

There might be some operators who want to provide, you know, chunky capital to us to secure a certain amount of processing throughput. We'll have an open mind to that. We are in some of those discussions as we speak now.

Understood, Gerard. Thank you. Final question, you're getting ready to execute your offshore CapEx program and get ready for production. If I remember correctly, originally this was supposed to be funded 50/50 between you and Allseas. You made a comment that Allseas will be funding a significant portion of that now. Should we take that it's gonna be more than 50% of the expected CapEx that Allseas will be funding?

No, you should, and you should continue to plan on us sharing that.

Okay. All right. Thank you, Gerard.

Thanks, Dmitry.

I'm gonna hop over, Latonia, to the webcast questions, to see if there are any other questions that are gonna populate on the audio side. In the meantime, we have a question from Ivan Schmidt. Given we're expecting Q1 2027 permit timing, how should investors think about the political risk around 2026 midterms and potentially a transition to new Congress in January 2027? One of the nice things about this point, happy for Gerard to expand on it, this isn't really a left versus right issue. Is it obvious that, you know, this current administration and Republicans have been very supportive of this industry? Of course.

Even going back to 2023, it was, I think, June of 2023, when there was first an announcement of the National Defense Authorization Act with President Biden that focused on, you know, doing more feasibility work on nodules. Of course, you know, Gerard, we had quite a few conversations with many in the administration who saw the need for this new industry and to get there, frankly, before China does. Specifically on any risk for, you know, midterm switch in the population of Congress, it's not going to affect this NOAA process. This is based on regulations put in place in the 1980s. DSHMRA was signed by President Carter, the implementing regulations from 1981 for exploration, in 1989 for commercial recovery. It's been the law of the land across multiple Democratic and Republican administrations.

We're going through this in a methodical way, and we are not skipping over any steps. That's why Gerard Barron highlighted in our first slide the public comment periods that are not going to be compressible when it comes to the permitting timeline. That puts us in a good position to say, "Look, we've done the process exactly right, and we followed the letter of the law and the mandate given to NOAA," who, by the way, is in the best position of anybody in the world to regulate this industry as the pioneers of the environmental science through the DOMES Program in the late seventies and early eighties. We don't think that's going to have any impact on the potential grant or validity of a commercial recovery permit for TMC. Another question, and maybe for Gerard Barron.

I believe you touched on this in the last quarterly call, from Tim Hole. Q4 2027 is the target for system commissioning. Is that the same as saying it's our target for full production? Maybe just a little context on some of the timing taken for commissioning and leading to commercial production shortly thereafter.

Yeah. Thanks, Craig. Look, commissioning means getting the equipment on board, making sure it works, making sure all the components come together nicely. Of course, you know, what that points to is that early in the year after, you know, we'll be out there testing, and we'll be out there making sure that, you know, we're in shape for commercial production. Commissioning is really getting everything on the boat, putting it all together, making sure they all fit as they're meant to fit.

The last question that I'll take from the webcast, from Ryan Boley. Will the September 2021 SPAC warrants be extended? Ryan, this is a question we get, I'm sure, from a lot of holders. The terms of that warrant is expiration in September 2026. Look, it's our ambition to, you know, fill this summer with a great amount of news flow, such that we might, you know, render that question moot. We're gonna keep doing everything we can. Any discussions with our board are going to be announced publicly if and when there's anything to announce there. It would be our focus just to, you know, push the share price to a higher level well in advance of that exercise date.

Nothing else I can say, no other comment I can make at this time. Latonia, if you want to re-prompt on the phone line to see if there are any final questions.

Certainly. As a friendly reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one. I would now like to turn the conference back to Gerard Barron for closing remarks.

Yes, thank you. Firstly, thanks everyone to turning up. I know a lot of people listen to these reports live, even more listen to the transcript afterwards or read the transcript afterwards. As you can tell, we turn up to these quarterly earnings reports full of enthusiasm because it's really quite exciting what we're doing, getting a new industry moving. This administration has an absolute focus on reindustrialization. It's an honor to deal with the government agencies which we deal with because they are filled with people from the private sector who know how to get things done. They just get this. You get a sense of optimism when you're dealing with this administration and these government agencies.

I hope what that is going to lead to is us getting this industry moving, a whole lot faster, a whole lot more reliably, and for the benefit of America becoming mineral independent and for the benefit of those people who supported us along this journey. Thank you, and we look forward to being in communication a lot with you in the coming months. On that note, I wish you a good day.

This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Thank you for standing by. Welcome to The Metals Company Fourth Quarter 2025 Corporate Update conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Craig Shesky. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you very much. Please note that during this call, certain statements made by the company will be forward-looking and based on management's beliefs and assumptions from information available at this time. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which may be beyond our control. Additionally, please note that the company's actual results may differ materially from those anticipated and except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement. Our remarks today may also include non-GAAP financial measures, including with respect to Free Cash Flows. Additional details regarding these non-GAAP financial measures, including reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, can be found in our slide deck being used with this call. You're welcome to follow along with our slide deck or if joining us by phone, you can access it at any time at investors.metals.co.

I'd now like to turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Gerard Barron. Gerard, please go ahead.

Thank you, Craig, and apologies to those on the line who we're a few minutes late. We're waiting for our wire to cross the line. But a welcome to you all. Before we get to the path forward, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on our journey over the last year. One year ago, to the day, in our fourth quarter earnings call, we announced a regulatory pivot that fundamentally changed our company's destiny. Instead of the uncertainty and gridlock of the ISA, we chose the certainty and clarity of the U.S. regulatory regime built upon a long-established legal framework under DSHMRA and catalyzed by the political will of this administration.

In April, this political will was made evident by President Trump's Executive Order Unleashing America's Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources, which marked America's return to leadership in deep seabed minerals. Some of the directives in this EO have already been delivered, including the modernization of the NOAA.

Gerard, sorry to interrupt. Your line is cutting in and out.

New roadmap for 2026. In 2026, we focused on accelerated execution, starting with permitting. Our consolidated application submitted to NOAA in January this year has been deemed substantially compliant, and we expect our permit to be granted in less than one year from today. This permitting clarity also provides confidence to us and our partners to get building in anticipation of commercial production. Offshore, we have reached commercial agreement on key terms with our long-term strategic partner, Allseas, and continue to progress the engineering work for the long lead items for our forthcoming production system. We expect this agreement to be finalized in the coming days. Onshore, it's also clear that the U.S. wants to dominate the onshore processing and refining of polymetallic nodules, establishing a counter to China's stranglehold on the production of critical minerals.

To do that will require support from the government itself. Securing the requisite permitting is a key enabler. I'm pleased to have secured a site at the Port of Brownsville, Texas and have also reached agreement with our partner, Mariana Minerals, to progress this feasibility work as part of the TMC owners' team. More on this shortly. Since day one, we knew success would depend on building a bench of exceptional partners with the expertise to tackle complex challenges and the conviction to back a new industry. As this chart shows, we've brought together a strong group of experienced partners across the value chain, each bringing a unique skill set to our vision of reimagining the metals and mining sector. What's changed and what matters is momentum. Many of our existing partners have deepened their commitments, reinforcing their belief in the long-term opportunity.

We're also welcoming new partners who share our belief that this industry will be built in the United States. That growing alignment is a clear validation of where this industry is heading. As I mentioned earlier, we've agreed key commercial terms with Allseas to complete the development and operate the Hidden Gem offshore system, the first ever commercial nodule collection system. The continued strategic alliance, which will be memorialized in the coming days, brings together all these decades of offshore execution expertise with our proven resource, environmental and processing platform into a single integrated system designed for a nominal capacity of 3 Mtpa using the Hidden Gem, two collector vehicles and a vessel to transfer nodules to bulk carriers for shipment to shore. Allseas are currently working on key long lead items like the riser, our launch and recovery systems, and the umbilical.

We look forward to signing this definitive agreement in the coming days and continue to progress towards system commissioning, still targeted for Q4 2027. One of the key actions outlined in last year's executive order was the directives for various government agencies to identify potential sources of financial support for this industry. In order to unlock government support for onshore processing, there are a few boxes we must tick, including a site-specific plan and feasibility studies. To that end, back in December last year, we secured an exclusive right over a potential lease option in the Port of Brownsville, Texas, near where plans have been recently announced by this administration for the first new U.S. oil refinery in decades, underscoring the border momentum behind strengthening American industrial capacity.

We've developed a preliminary master plan and a pre-feasibility study is already underway for a 12 Mtpa nodule industrial park. Of course, existing capital like tolling options are still available to us, and we'll not be committing any capital at this time. I'm certainly excited about what a domestic nodule processing hub can mean for both new partnerships and for our project economics. Processed domestically, our nodule resource could single-handedly solve the American supply chain dependency across four key metals. As I mentioned, one of the requirements to unlocking funding, one is the preparation of a feasibility study for a processing plant at a specific site. To that end, we're adding a new strategic partner to our bench in Mariana Minerals.

Mariana CEO Turner Caldwell Steene speaking at last year's Strategy Day is someone we know well from his time at Tesla, where he headed up global battery metal supply. The Mariana team are pioneers of AI and software approaches to project development and metallurgical processing and have demonstrated their ability to fast-track project execution, which enabled Tesla to build its lithium plant in Texas in less than two years. The Mariana team will be joining as part of the TMC owners team, and we already enjoy a good working relationship with their team. Mariana's approach is core to how cutting-edge businesses like SpaceX and others operate. With AI, we think they can move even faster and believe their innovative model offers a faster, more modern approach to reindustrialization.

Subject to further definitive agreements, we look forward to exploring how their systems could reduce permitting and construction timelines for a domestic plant while reducing OpEx and increasing recovery of payable metals. In fact, right after this call, our team, executive team will convene in Texas with the Mariana team for the next week to progress this mission-critical work, which is also a prerequisite for a certain U.S. involvement. I'm also pleased to share that in April, just days away, The Metals Royalty Company will begin trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker TMCR. A quick refresher, formed with the goal of onshoring critical minerals production in the U.S. TMCR has a 2% gross royalty on our NORI area, resulting from an agreement we signed with Low Carbon Royalties in 2023.

We retain the right to repurchase up to 75% of that royalty over time at a capped return, which could potentially reduce the royalty to just 0.5%. TMC also maintains a 25% equity stake in TMCR. Many TMCR faces will be familiar to our followers, including the current and former board members Michael Hess and Brian Paes-Braga. With their backing and a strong team behind them, we see TMCR as a strategic vehicle which can potentially provide future options for capital and sizable project finance. I'd now like to turn the call over to Craig to discuss some industry updates, our regulatory path ahead, and our financials.

Thanks, Gerard. One quick note that we shared actually in recent weeks on our social accounts. We recently joined the Defense Industrial Base Consortium, DIBC, a partnership within the Department of Defense's manufacturing expansion and investment prioritization directorate, reflecting growth of our capabilities. This initiative gives the government the tools it needs to provide with commercial solutions that can help close supply chain vulnerabilities and strengthen the defense industrial base. Of course, critical minerals and seabed are focused for the U.S. and allies. Over the past year, we've seen investors and operators effectively vote with their feet, gravitating toward regulatory frameworks that offer clarity and a credible path to commercialization. While the ISA remains in gridlock, the U.S. has emerged as a leading jurisdiction, and certain allies are relying upon the U.S. and certain areas of expertise to develop seabed resources.

This shift is being echoed at the government level. While in March, the U.S. and Japan announced a new critical minerals action plan with an explicit focus on accelerating cooperation on commercially viable deep sea mining. Against this backdrop, we remain the only seabed mineral developer with SEC-compliant mineral reserves, which is the clearest definition of commercial viability, positioning us at the forefront of this emerging industry. In January, NOAA finalized revisions to accelerate permitting under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, introducing a consolidated application process that meaningfully streamlines the path to commercial recovery. TMC moved quickly to take advantage of that clarity, submitting the first consolidated application under this new framework. This application expands our expected commercial recovery area from 25,000 sq km to approximately 65,000 sq km and is designed to significantly reduce permitting timelines.

Importantly, it reflects the strength of our technical readiness and our ability to meet NOAA requirements for commercial scale operations. We see this as a clear signal that the U.S. regulatory path is active, predictable, and capable of supporting responsible development. Now with more than 10 applications in the system, it is evident that the broader industry is aligning around the U.S. framework. The last time we updated you, we were progressing systematically through the NOAA permitting pathway, and that remains the case today, even under this new consolidated path. With the consolidated application now active under NOAA's new rule, we have greater clarity on the process ahead and a clear line of sight on the key milestones required for final approval.

Our experience over the last year, particularly through NOAA's review of our exploration licenses, has provided valuable insight into the process and expectations for both TMC USA and NOAA. We announced on March 9 that we passed the first of these milestones with NOAA determining our application to be substantially compliant, and the next potential milestone being full compliance. Based on this progress and what we've learned, we now expect the grant of our commercial recovery permit within the next 12 months. Now, to get to this point, it's taken over $700 million and hundreds of research days at sea. We are now nearing the completion of our environmental impact statement, and our EIA is complete.

Informed by the largest environmental data set in history, over a petabyte in size, this comprehensive document reflects 15 years of scientific research conducted alongside leading institutions and demonstrates our ability to responsibly collect nodules using modern systems designed to maximize efficiency while minimizing environmental impact. Put simply, better science leads to better design, and better design leads to better environmental impacts. For those with a keen eye on our social media, you may have noticed that we've begun sharing key findings from our EIA publicly during a new video series, highlighting how our data addresses environmental concerns and how innovation has reduced our environmental footprint. I encourage you all to check this out, and you can click on the PDF of this posted on our website to get to those videos directly, or we encourage you to follow TMC on our social accounts, including Twitter and LinkedIn.

We look forward to our EIS being made available for public comment soon as per NOAA's transparent and accountable process. As many of you know, and there may be some on the call who are with us in the room, we published a pre-feasibility study and initial assessment alongside our strategy day in New York last August. Covering our first production area, the PFS documented world-first reserves for a nodule project demonstrating clear commercial viability. Our initial assessments covered everything else that you see in royal blue among our contract areas on this page. Keep in mind that neither of these comprehensive studies, which were signed off by multiple independent qualified persons, cover additional ground over which we now have priority right through the U.S. process. This is represented in the lighter gray on this page.

Given the proximity of these areas to those covered in our published technical studies, we do believe that these areas support significant exploration upside. Our current metal prices shifting to project economics, it's clear that these projects are incredibly valuable. If you combine the $5.5 billion net present value of a pre-feasibility study and the $18.1 billion NPV for the initial assessment, you arrive at a total estimated resource of $23.6 billion. Over the life of both projects on an undiscounted basis, the studies outline revenue of approximately $369 billion, EBITDA in excess of $200 billion, and a position in the first quartile of the cost curve as laid out in our PFS.

However, despite the clear value of this high quality and abundant resource and our expected low-cost positioning, our valuation does remain below that of comparable peer developers and explorers. On the left side of this page, you'll see a TMC valuation example, where we're trading at about 8% of our underlying net present value, well below peer averages for explorers and developers, and certainly below the average of nearly 1x NAV for nickel and copper producers. As we march toward a clear permitting path and commercial production, we are looking forward to a significant re-rating in this valuation story. On to liquidity. TMC reported year-end 2025 cash balance of $117.6 million, and we expect at month-end for March 31, 2026 to report approximately $110 million in cash.

TMC liquidity defined as cash + borrowing capacity on our unsecured credit facility stood at $162 million at year-end 2025 and is expected to be approximately $154 million around month-end March 31, 2026. This means we have no imminent need to raise funds in the public markets. As discussed in our last several quarterly conference calls, however, we are filing a new Form S-3 shelf registration statement in conjunction with our upcoming 10-K as a matter of good corporate housekeeping, and we do intend at some point in the future to refresh our ATM. However, there has been no ATM use by the company since April 2025. Onto our financial results.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, TMC reported a net loss of $40.4 million or $0.08 per share, compared to a net loss of $16.1 million or $0.04 per share for the same period in 2024. The net loss for the fourth quarter of 2025 included exploration and evaluation expenses of $10.6 million versus $8.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, general and administrative expenses, or G&A, of $34.1 million versus $8.1 million G&A in the comparable quarter last year, and a credit of $4.3 million from other non-operating items versus a credit of $0.3 million from other non-operating items in Q4 2024.

Exploration and evaluation expenses increased by $2.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, primarily resulting from an increase in share-based compensation due to accelerated amortization of awards granted in the third quarter of 2025, partially offset by lower mining, technological and process development costs resulting from decreased engineering work. G&A expenses increased by $26 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, reflecting an increase in share-based compensation due to the accelerated amortization of awards granted to directors and officers in the third quarter of 2025 and an increase in legal, consulting, and personnel costs.

Other non-operating items that reduced the net loss in Q4 2025 included higher interest income generated from our increased cash balances and a gain resulting from the dilution of our ownership interest in The Metals Royalty Company as it completed a private placement to third parties at a price well in excess of book value. On Free Cash Flow. The free cash outflow for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $11.5 million, compared to $13.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2024.

Net cash used in operating activities was $11.4 million compared to $13.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, primarily due to lower personnel and environmental payments, coupled with the interest earned on the higher cash balance in 2025 and partially offset by higher legal payments. Focusing on a full year basis for the cash flow. On a full year basis, free cash outflow for 2025 was $43.1 million, compared to $44 million in 2024. Net cash used in operating activities was $42.9 million compared to $43.5 million in 2024, reflecting lower environmental and mining technological payments and interest earned on the higher cash balance in 2025, partially offset by higher underutilization fees paid on the unsecured credit facilities, timing of payment on regulatory fees, and higher legal payments.

Free Cash Flow is a non-GAAP measure, and I would point you to the non-GAAP reconciliation included in this slide deck. We believe that our cash on hand will be sufficient to meet our working capital and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months from today. Looking at the balance sheet over the course of 2025, there was a significant increase in the cash balance as the following funds were received: $85.2 million from the Korea Zinc investment, $41.2 million from other registered direct offerings, including the Hess family investment, $14.8 million from ATM use, and $27 million from the exercise of various stock options and warrants.

A portion of these proceeds was used to repay the $7.5 million Allseas working capital loan, along with other outstanding interest thereon, as well as a $4.3 million draw on the Ares unsecured credit facility. Our accounts payable and accrued liabilities as at December 31, 2025 was $46 million and includes $34 million owed to Allseas for various services provided, the majority of which can be settled in equity. The $131 million increase in royalty liability was the result of the change in fair value following the company's release of two economic studies in August 2025, which increased the value of the NORI project. The significant increase in the warrant liability over 2025 was due to the increase in the fair value of private warrants, which reflected the significant increase in our share price.

With that, operator, we'd now like to open the call up for some Q&A.

Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and two follow-ups. One moment for our first question. Our first question will come from the line of Heiko Ihle with H.C. Wainwright & Co. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey there. Can you guys hear me all right? Good morning.

Good morning, Heiko. Yes, we can.

Good morning, Heiko. Yeah.

I'm very intrigued by those negotiations for the nodule processing and refining hub in Brownsville. Obviously, given recent geopolitical risk factors that have just been, you know, going up quite a bit and just in general uncertainties that are going on, I think this might be quite interesting. Couple of things on that. Can you walk us through what you see on an impact with shipping expenses if this Brownsville hub goes ahead? And maybe quantify it.

Sure. Look, there are many exciting options about bringing material straight to the U.S., and shipping is one of them. Energy costs, of course, is another, because the biggest input into our cost base when we process nodules is energy. You know, we applaud this administration for realizing that, you know, abundant energy leads to prosperity. There's no better example of that than the U.S. compared to, you know, some other markets, you know. It's our estimate that you can actually process nodules cheaper in the south where we've located, Brownsville, Texas, compared to China or Indonesia or Japan because of energy costs. Shipping is also better as well. It does mean having to bring them through the Panama Canal, and you know, it will also.

You know, the site we've chosen does have some deep water berths available to it. They won't take the biggest ships that are available and that we'd like to use, but in time we think they can. But no firm numbers, but improvements to be made.

Yeah. Okay. Fair. I know it's early, but you may not even have all these answers yet. Can you walk me through key permits and timelines you think we need to build all this infrastructure, please?

It's important to note, Heiko, too, I mean, what we're beginning here is site-specific feasibility work. At the same time, what I can say is that the particular site we're looking at does have many permits.

Okay.

We continue to have, you know, continued discussions, very positive discussions with Greg Abbott's office in Texas and other agencies there. But it's important to note a lot of this is going to be, you know, for a prerequisite of us making plans and moving forward, going to be dependent on some of the support we get at the federal level. So really the key permit here is the grant of a commercial recovery permit by NOAA. Certainly when we're talking to, you know, various agencies and cabinet departments, it is that permit that would unlock, we think a lot of the support and potential investment for a facility like this.

One of the reasons I think that you're seeing TMC engage in some of this work on feasibility, as well as us alongside our partner, Allseas, progressing engineering work, and beginning to think about ordering these long lead time items is due to our confidence in the grant of that commercial recovery permit in a timely manner.

Fair enough. Okay. I'll get back in queue. Thank you very much.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Matthew O'Keefe with Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thanks, operator. Morning, gents. Yeah, just a question I wanna follow up on Heiko's Texas question there. You are working on a feasibility study there. It sounds like Mariana is gonna be a part of that. What's the timing on getting that done? And will we get to see sort of the results of that?

Yeah. Sure. Well, certainly Mariana will be playing an important role as part of our owners team. We already have Hatch working on the refresh of that of the PFS, which is based on, you know, bringing all those numbers to a Brownsville site. We anticipate that'll be ready very soon. We also anticipate well before the end of the year having a, I guess in the old language, a BFS on what we're planning to put on the ground in Texas. The date that is being talked about is end of October, and so not far away. You know, we certainly expect Hatch and others to be involved in that as well.

Okay. That's a good group. Is that going to be a hydromet facility or are you going to look at an option of doing sort of the RKEF front end like you're gonna be doing in Japan?

That's the exciting part. For the last since in fact Dr. Jeffrey Donald joined our group and pivoted us back to more of a pyro front end, you know, that's where we've been building lots of expertise on how we get, you know, raw nodules into those intermediate products. The plan is to build the pyro in Brownsville, you know, if we were to go down that pathway. We're very fortunate that we have an amazing technical partner in Japan that we continue to have a great working relationship with. But boy, a nickel refinery, a nickel processing plant hasn't been built in 80 years yet here in America, yet the demand for nickel is going, you know, at an increasing clip. You know, we know it's needed to make every ton of stainless steel.

We know it's used in super alloys. We know it's used across AI and data centers and military uses and electrification. The uses and the demand for it is going up, yet we import 100% of our nickel. You know, something's not kind of a fit there, Matt. There's an opportunity, I guess. We just see that this might be that moment where the administration says, "Yeah, we wanna fix that problem," you know.

Yeah. No, for sure. That's why I was kinda asking. It seems like a pretty exciting turn, and would love to see the numbers on that. More on that. Just switching off the processing back to the recovery. You said you're sort of getting long lead time items. I'm assuming for Hidden Gem or and the whole that whole process. So what would you anticipate, assuming you get your permit, you know, within 12 months, what would you anticipate the timing to get Hidden Gem back on the water? And do you foresee it being as is or with additional collector capacity?

Yeah. We are still standing by our guidance of commissioning Q4 next year. It will. We've elected to run with a two collector model. So that basically gives us the opportunity to get ours out on the water. I guess that'll be early 2028. We'll kick off with one collector in production, but we'll soon move to a second collector being in production as well. You know, as you well know, we have a production boat that is production ready now, just on a production number that's not high enough. We wanna see a higher production number because the more tons you amortize over the cost of the floating steel above, the better the economics.

Yeah

I think we proved in 2022 that, you know, we can do this reliably at commercial scale. Now it's about making money.

It's important to note that too, you know, the connective tissue for, you know, the ramp up offshore, but then also what the potential processing and refining plans might be onshore. You know, certainly this administration wants to be able to say, you know, if we can bring this back domestically, you know, it's helpful to be able to do it during this administration. The way you do that is ramp up in, you know, relatively bite-sized amounts, starting, let's say, with production capacity that could handle nodules coming from a vessel like the Hidden Gem, which has 3 Mtpa nominal capacity.

Kind of matching as best we can ramp up for both the offshore production and then having a home for the processing and refining of those nodules is certainly, you know, part of the work that we and our team of engineers are doing in the coming months.

Right. If I may just ask one more question. On the permitting process, not so much the process, you've made that pretty clear. Under the NOAA process, there is an additional piece of ground that wasn't covered by the PFS, it wasn't covered by the initial assessment that you've added. I'm just curious sort of why and you know what your plans are for that. I mean, can you really do any work on that in the near term? Yeah, is it infringing on anyone else's claims that might be under the previous permanent regime?

Yeah. Look, it was just a natural fit, you know? It was fitting between two blocks that we had hold over. At the end of the day, we will, while we're out there, continue to, you know, take observations of that. I guess what we'll aim to prove, it's a continuous piece of ground, and it doesn't require any particular environmental work done on it. We imagine that once production starts out there that there'll be more collaboration between some of the license holders as well, you know. I think no doubt there'll be some people that end up being granted licenses who don't have production vessels and/or who want help getting their applications through the permitting process.

As you know, we probably know more about that than anyone on this planet. We're certainly getting a lot of inbound interest in how we might be willing to collaborate with some players. You know, we see this as pre-production. I think it's. We wanna see more people in production out there. But what I'm pretty certain no one's planning to do is to put, you know, plans for a processing plant on the ground anywhere. I see a lot of applicants starting to talk about, you know, them being successful at moving to the first phase. We know from that journey there's a lot of road left in front of them. We'll be here to help them and maybe supply services to them along the way.

In the meantime, you know, to fully explore just how committed this administration is to bringing, you know, a processing plant so we can bring nodules straight to the USA.

Yeah. No, that makes sense. Thanks very much.

Thanks, Matt.

I think we're going to, Michelle, take a few questions, potentially from our chat. So there's a question from Jake Sekelsky. We mentioned government support is needed for the U.S.-based processing plant. Can we clarify what type of support this means, financial permitting or otherwise? It's a good question. I think the answer is all of the above. Certainly, as we noted earlier, progressing the commercial recovery permit is the most important prerequisite. We also, of course, would rely upon both at the federal, state, and local levels, what we think are very supportive administrations, to help really, you know, make some of these plans a reality. Again, the prerequisite for a lot of this work is site-specific feasibility work.

Ensuring that we get that right and are doing it at a place like the Port of Brownsville, where we have truly everything that we need to stand up a potential nodule ecosystem. That's going to be critical in our decision to push forward on this. We do have really the unique ability with this resource of maintaining capital-light options for the processing. It's not like most ore bodies where you have no choice but to build processing and refining close to where the ore body is. We have flexibility here in the nature of this nodule resource, and that you can collect them and ship them really north, south, east, or west.

It's the desire of this administration to change the game and kind of release themselves from the stranglehold that China has had on critical metals. To do that, as Gerard noted, it's not just a TMC story. So we have the resource, and we have the capability to help do this. But we're making all of the decisions, obviously with the benefit of our shareholders in mind and making sure that we are, you know, not pushing forward on anything without a very non-dilutive financing plan that we expect would be supported by the government, assuming that we would wanna take the next step. There is another question here from James Erwin. To what extent are your systems being designed or evaluated for dual use capabilities with U.S. defense or autonomous underwater operations?

Gerard, maybe if you wanna weigh in a bit on that too, but it is a good point to raise it. You know, we saw a piece from CNN and Mongabay over the last few weeks that traveled pretty far, noting the fact that Chinese ambitions in this space are focused offshore very much on that dual use capability between some of the military uses for the stuff that they're working on, along with deep sea mining. One of the interesting things that we're looking at on the onshore side is the fact that, you know, the flow sheets that we and Hatch and now Mariana are developing and working through, you know, certainly are the types of things that, you know, could lead to processing and refining capabilities that aren't just limited to nodules over the long term.

Gerard, not sure if you have any other color on that point?

Look, I think there are some exciting areas for collaboration, and I would not rule them out.

I see one more question on the Hidden Gem. Looking at sort of the investment or acquisition of a second vessel like the Hidden Gem, what would be planned before that? Who might manufacture it? Who would the partners be on that front?

Well, you know, taking a converted drill ship and making it fit for picking up nodules proves to be a pretty efficient move. There's an abundance of those vessels. I saw Transocean recently scrapped four of them for, you know, for quite cheap money. That's an option. You know, we do have inbound inquiries from people who have vessels who would like to use them. Of course, the vessel is the first step. The operator is the important one. Just to be clear, Allseas want to operate more vessels in the CCZ, and we want them to operate more vessels for us in this area.

Obviously there are efficiencies in having similar type vessels from a parts and administration perspective, and so stand by.

Operator, any other questions on the phone line?

I'm showing no further questions on the phone lines.

Okay. Gerard, perhaps over to you.

Well, yeah. Well, thank you, everyone. You know, we've got a lot of very long-term shareholders who have been supporting us since I went public in 2021, and of course, before that when we were DeepGreen. You know, it's exciting to see the direction the business is heading. It was exciting to report some of those updates today. It's frustrating not being able to give more regular updates, but, you know, we have to be very, you know, sensitive in how we message that. To the team and our partners, thank you for, you know, an enormous heavy lift from everyone who works at TMC. It's a very dedicated, hardworking team, and it's an honor to work alongside you all.

To our shareholders, you know, thank you for being there and coming with us on this journey. Look forward to keeping you updated as updates become available. Over and out.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.