The Metals Company Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Allseas Production Deal Accelerates Timeline to Commercial Nodule Mining

Operator: 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.

Craig Shesky, Chief Financial Officer, The Metals Company: 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.

Gerard Barron, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Metals Company: 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.

Rutger Bosland, Chief Innovation and Offshore Technology Officer, The Metals Company: 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.

Gerard Barron, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Metals Company: 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 square kilometers 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 4 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.

Craig Shesky, Chief Financial Officer, The Metals Company: 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 3 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 negative $0.6 million, compared to negative $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.

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

Matthew O’Keefe, Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald: Thanks, operator. Evening, gentlemen.

Craig Shesky, Chief Financial Officer, The Metals Company: Hey, Matt.

Matthew O’Keefe, Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald: 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.

Craig Shesky, Chief Financial Officer, The Metals Company: 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.

Matthew O’Keefe, Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald: Yeah.

Craig Shesky, Chief Financial Officer, The Metals Company: 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.

Matthew O’Keefe, Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald: 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?

Craig Shesky, Chief Financial Officer, The Metals Company: 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.

Matthew O’Keefe, Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald: 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.

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

Dmitry Silversteyn, Analyst, Water Tower Research: 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?

Craig Shesky, Chief Financial Officer, The Metals Company: Yeah, that’s a very good.

Gerard Barron, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Metals Company: Yeah, hi, Dmitry. Sorry. Yeah, Rutger, go for it. Yeah.

Rutger Bosland, Chief Innovation and Offshore Technology Officer, The Metals Company: 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.

Dmitry Silversteyn, Analyst, Water Tower Research: 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?

Gerard Barron, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Metals Company: 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.

Dmitry Silversteyn, Analyst, Water Tower Research: 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?

Gerard Barron, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Metals Company: No, you should, and you should continue to plan on us sharing that.

Dmitry Silversteyn, Analyst, Water Tower Research: Okay. All right. Thank you, Gerard.

Gerard Barron, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Metals Company: Thanks, Dmitry.

Craig Shesky, Chief Financial Officer, The Metals Company: 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.

Gerard Barron, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Metals Company: Yeah. Thanks, Perry. 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.

Craig Shesky, Chief Financial Officer, The Metals Company: 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.

Operator: 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.

Gerard Barron, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Metals Company: 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.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.