Posted on March 20, 2023
OSLO — Norway’s Loke Marine Minerals has acquired deep-sea mining firm UK Seabed Resources (UKSR) from Lockheed Martin, the companies said on Thursday.
UKSR holds a 100% interest in two deep sea mineral licenses in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the Pacific Ocean, and a 19.9% interest in the Ocean Mineral Singapore, licenses issued by the International Seabed Authority (ISA).
“We’ve got the approval from the UK government… Our ambition is to start extraction from 2030,” Hans Olav Hide, Loke’s chairman, told Reuters.
Companies that also hold exploration licenses for swathes of the sea floor in the CCZ include Global Sea Mineral Resources (GSR) and The Metals Company.
“Following a detailed analysis of the business it was clear that there was a better owner for our UK Seabed Resources business,” a Lockheed Martin spokesperson said.
Through this transaction, Loke becomes the largest holder of licenses in the CCZ area spanning 4.5 million square kilometers between Hawaii and Mexico. It declined to disclose the value of the deal.
The area is peppered with potato-sized rocks rich in cobalt, copper, nickel, and manganese – key materials for technologies driving the energy transition, such as batteries for electric cars.
However, the plans of Loke and some other companies to extract minerals from the ocean floor have been criticized by environmentalists, who say the impact could be devastating to little-known species living there.
