Company: TMCWW
Filing Date: 2025-04-18
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001104659-25-036264
Chunk: 65

Company: TMC the metals Co Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-18
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 65
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 successful completion of which is a prerequisite for our application for an exploitation contract with the ISA. Under the PMTA, Allseas agreed to cover the development cost of the project in exchange for a payment from us upon successful completion of the pilot trial of the PMTS in NORI Area D. On March 16, 2022, Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (“NORI”) and Allseas entered into a non-binding term sheet for the development and operation of a commercial nodule collection system. The pilot nodule collection system developed and tested by Allseas is expected to be upgraded to a commercial system with a targeted production capacity of 1.3 million tonnes of wet nodules per year with expected production readiness by the fourth quarter of 2024. NORI and Allseas intended to equally finance all costs related to developing and getting the first commercial system into production that were estimated at less than EUR100 million. It was anticipated that NORI would not have to make any payments related to the commercial system to Allseas until March 31, 2023. Once in production, NORI expected to pay Allseas a nodule collection and transshipment fee estimated at approximately EUR 150 per wet tonne in the first year of operations, which was expected to be reduced by more than 20% in the following years as Allseas scaled up production to 1.3 million wet tonnes of nodules per year. Following the successful completion of the NORI Area D pilot collection system trials in November 2022 and subsequent analysis of pilot data, the parties are reviewing Project Zero System production targets (up to 3 Mtpa of wet nodules), system design and cost estimates and intend to enter into a binding Heads of Terms in the second half of 2023. The parties expect to further detail their relationship in three separate definitive agreements for engineering, conversion/build and commercial operations phase, respectively. Subject to the necessary regulatory approvals, Allseas and NORI also intend to investigate acquiring a second production vessel 41 TABLE OF CONTENTS similar to the Hidden Gem, a further Samsung 10000, with the potential for it to be engineered to support a higher production rate of three million tonnes of wet nodules per year and lower associated per tonne production cost. There can be no assurances, however, that we will enter into definitive agreements with Allseas contemplated by the non-binding term sheet in a particular time period, or at all, or on terms similar to those set forth in the