Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders Gerard Barron, CEO, The Metals Company – Depth Perception: Harvesting critical minerals from the ocean floor (Re-Broadcast)
Today, we're hopping back into the archive and revisiting an episode with Gerard Barron, the co-founder, CEO, and chairman of The Metals Company, who joined us to discuss the company’s plans to harvest critical metals off the sea floor.
Summary:
The Trump administration has made American reindustrialization a top priority, but to do that, the US is going to need access to an abundance of metals like copper, manganese and nickel. The challenge then is to find a way to source these materials that doesn't rely on Chinese supply chains, and won't lead to serious environmental harm.
Gerard Barron is the co-founder, CEO and chairman of The Metals Company, which trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol TMC. The Metals Company mission is to harvest and process metal-containing nodules from the sea floor, providing a clean and abundant source of raw materials for an array of critical industries, like steelmaking and EV production.
Gerard walks us through the evolution of TMC, their groundbreaking tech, and some recent regulatory breakthroughs that have brought them closer to achieving their goals than ever before.
Highlights:
- The Metals Company Mission (2:07)
- The history of seabed harvesting (3:43)
- Land-based supply chains (7:17)
- TMC's tech (10:44)
- Regulatory roadblocks (12:28)
- Defense implications (15:51)
- EVs (17:37)
- Korea Zinc deal (19:41)
- Looking ahead (21:34)
- PE Involvement (24:22)
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If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer, Joe@lowerstreet.co.