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Moana Minerals

Clean Energy Transition

Vehicle electrification is a key enabler of the world’s clean energy transition. This has increased the demand for more power-dense Lithium-Ion battery technology and permanent magnet traction drive systems, resulting in the growing demand for critical metals, such as cobalt, nickel, manganese, copper, and rare earths.

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The Role We Play

Moana Minerals is committed to sustainably providing these critical metals through the development of our nodule project to significantly address the projected shortfalls of these metals.

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Why Deep Seabed Nodules?

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Lower Environmental Impacts

Development of this resource requires neither excavation nor deforestation, and the reusable infrastructure occupies a minimal footprint.

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Polymetallic Nature

Nodules uniquely provide a single source for cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese and rare earth elements — all essential for producing batteries and magnets used in electric vehicles

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Size & Grade

The Cook Islands alone hold nearly 23% of the world’s known cobalt and 8% of the world’s nickel, in addition to significant volumes of copper, manganese and rare earth elements – all hosted in high concentrations in polymetallic nodules.

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Why are Metals Important for a Clean Energy Transition?

Cobalt, nickel, and manganese in particular enable the functioning of high-energy-density Lithium-Ion battery chemistries, while rare earth elements are integral to the most efficient electric vehicle traction drive systems, and copper is used extensively throughout electric vehicles. If we want to transition to electric vehicles, we must have enough of these metals.

The Metals That Drive
the Clean Energy Transition

Achieving “well below 2°C global temperature rise”, as in the IEA Sustainable Development Scenario, would need an estimated supply growth of 21X for cobalt, 19X for nickel, and 8X for manganese, and 7X for rare earths for clean energy technologies by 2040. Seafloor nodules provide an untapped source of some of these metals in a single ore deposit.

(Source: IEA World Energy Outlook Special Report – The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions, plus the IEA website)

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Is There a Market for Seabed Nodule Mining?

As international mandates drive EV adoption and global auto manufacturers commit to fleet electrification, the supply of cobalt, nickel and other key resources will become the focus of global government and business interests alike. Amplified by declining grades and a lack of new sizeable land-based mines, coupled with increased ESG requirements, enormous growth in demand for these metals and upward price pressure are sure to follow. These factors all support a strong market for seabed nodule mining.

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Interested in learning more about our Cook Islands initiative, how our work lends itself to a more sustainable future, or just have general inquiries? Connect with us today.

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