Cook Islands’ Prime Minister Mark Brown signed a declaration officially opening up areas of their seabed for applicants to submit exploration license applications.

Oct. 22, 2020 – Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands. The Cook Islands announced today the launching of its Exploration License application process for blocks of the seabed containing cobalt-rich polymetallic nodules within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Announcement was made at a launch event held in Rarotonga,

Cook Islands’ Prime Minister Mark Brown signed a declaration officially opening up areas of their seabed for applicants to submit exploration license applications. In 2018 the Cook Islands put a hold on Exploration licensing in order “to ensure a sound legal framework and licensing process was put in place”. Following an extensive review and re-write of the Cook Islands’ Seabed Minerals Act and associated regulations, the new Seabed Minerals Act 2019 (amended by the Seabed Minerals Amendment Bill 2020) and Seabed Minerals (Exploration) Regulations 2020 have been enacted.

Ocean Minerals LLC (OML) entered into an agreement with the Cook Islands government on Oct. 17, 2017, granting OML an exclusive right to apply for an exploration license for polymetallic nodules in respect to a Reserved Seabed Area (RSA) of approximately 23,000 sq. kilometers in the Penrhyn Basin. Based upon this most recent action by the Cook Islands, OML is currently preparing an Exploration License application for submission to the Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority, planned for later this year, over our RSA.

In addition to formally opening the process by which OML may apply for an exploration license over our reserved areas, the Cook Islands also announced the launch of a tender offer for applications to explore other blocks within the Cook Islands EEZ.

About OML

Ocean Minerals LLC is a private U.S. based company seeking to develop the world’s largest known primary cobalt deposit contained in polymetallic nodules on the seabed in the Cook Islands’ EEZ. In addition to cobalt, the nodules contain potentially economic quantities of nickel, copper, manganese, and rare earth elements.

OML commissioned an independent resource report according to NI-43-101 and JORC standards, prepared by RSC Consulting Ltd., which resulted in an estimate of inferred resources in the OML RSA of 331 million tonnes  of nodules (wet weight) at a cobalt grade of 0.5% (based on dry weight), equivalent to approximately one million tonnes of cobalt making it the largest known primary cobalt resource. The resource report also indicated an exploration potential of an additional estimated 300 million tonnes of nodules (wet weight) in the RSA.

In 2019 OML commissioned an NI-43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment, prepared by AMC Consultants, which concluded a Cook Islands nodule project could be economic at projected cobalt prices. A recent internal economic update that reflects current market conditions and process testing results shows potential positive economics at current depressed metal prices.

For further information contact us at info@omlus.com

Cook Islands participants in the OML research survey

The 8-day research voyage, on the local vessel MV Grinna, was delayed because of poor weather and set off almost 2 weeks later than planned. However, all the local crew and technical team remained optimistic that they would depart and were very keen to join in this historic deep sea research opportunity.

This Seabed Minerals related voyage is being conducted under a Research Application approved by the Cook Islands Research Committee. Basically, it relates to some limited nodule, sediment and biological research, using basic Free Fall Grab sampling, in the OML Reserve area, north of Aitutaki. Friends and family gathered to farewell their loved ones on this exciting adventure.

Hans Smit, Dave Huber and Karl Winter of OML shall be attending and sponsoring at the Underwater Mining Conference, Hainan, China, 22-27 September 2019.

We also look forward to demonstrating our environmental data collection application – PelagOS

On 21 August 2019, OML Founder and Chairman John Halkyard and President Hans Smit presented a 1-hour seminar entitled “Mining the Deep Seabed: A viable approach to meeting the critical needs of the U.S. for secure, responsibly sourced metals for a green energy future” as part of the USGS NMIC Seminar series.

In this meeting, OML presented an industry perspective as to the viability of seabed mining as the solution for looming supply deficits and import dependencies for a number of critical metals.

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Ocean Minerals, LLC (OML) and the government of the Cook Islands, through the Cook Islands Investment Corporation (CIIC), have entered into an Agreement that will reserve approximately 23,000 square kilometers within the Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) containing high value polymetallic nodules for up to 18 months to enable the OML the exclusive right to apply to undertake prospecting and exploration activities in that area. OML is required to apply for an Exploration License under the Seabed Minerals Act of 2009 within that period.

This is the second agreement between OML and CIIC. The first agreement, signed in September 2016, was restricted to exploration of the rare earth enriched sediments which underlie the nodules. That agreement was for 12,000 sq km in another part of the Cook Islands EEZ, and included first rights of refusal over an additional 48,000 sq km.

OML Chairman, Dr. John Halkyard, notes that the interest in the Cook Islands’ nodules is based on published estimates showing that the Cook Islands cobalt resource is potentially close to 15-20% of the world’s presently known resource of cobalt.

“Cobalt is becoming one of the most talked about mineral elements today. Cobalt has high tech uses, as it is an essential ingredient in long life lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles,” stated Halkyard. “With today’s deep-sea technology, we believe the higher grades can be extracted in an economic and environmentally sustainable manner.”

OML has confirmed that it will have a focus on the sensitivity of environmental and social issues and that these will be at the forefront of the project planning.

“Once we are underway, we plan to have Cook Islanders involved in our project from the beginning of the planning process and will be meeting with the Cook Island community and leaders on a regular basis. At OML, we are very excited about engaging with the Cook Islands Government and people on both the 2016 rare earth sediment project, and the new 2017 nodule project, to develop a new national economic opportunity for the Cook Islands people, and at the same time bringing new World Class mineral resources to market for green energy applications”.

The Honourable Mark Brown, the Minister responsible for the Cook Islands Investment Corporation, announced today that the government has entered into an Agreement with Ocean Minerals LLC, a U.S. company, for the granting of contractual rights to prospect and explore for minerals in part of the seabed in the Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone.

The Minister said that Cabinet has approved the Agreement and will now reserve approximately 12,000 sq km of the seabed exclusively for Ocean Minerals to explore for minerals, while giving Ocean Minerals a first option to explore several other high value areas of the seabed.

The Chairman of CIIC, Michael Henry said that Ocean Minerals, in addition to the payment of an exploration fee, will fund annual training programmes for Cook Islanders, thereby increasing the knowledge and capacity base within the Cook Islands in relation to seabed minerals. It is anticipated that, when surveys are undertaken of the seabed by Ocean Minerals, two Cook Islanders will accompany each of these expeditions for the purpose of training and overseeing activities. The Agreement also provides financial assistance to the Cook Islands Government to help build awareness and input from the community about our seabed minerals sector.

Ocean Minerals President, Ron Rose, himself a geologist, disclosed the company’s interest is not in manganese nodules that sit on the seabed. But rather the underlying sediments where Ocean Minerals believes there are concentrations of Rare Earth Elements including Yttrium and Scandium. Detailed analyses of existing deep ocean cores and samples by their team of expert marine geologists and scientists have indicated several high value areas that Ocean Minerals has applied for reservation in the Agreement for further exploration, sampling and definition over the coming years.

The Rare Earth Elements are critical to the world’s most demanding high tech, green energy, and defense applications. New applications of Rare Earth Elements are constantly being discovered. This includes the use of Scandium in the next generation of high strength aluminium alloys for aerospace applications. As such, the demand for these elements is steadily increasing which terrestrial sources will not be able to meet.