-- France: The French government has renewed its sponsorship of the
ISA exploration contract of state contractor, Ifremer, conditional
on their compliance with the ISA regime and their ability to move
to exploitation within 5 years.
-- Belgium: Belgian contractor GSR also announced investment from
leading offshore contractor, Transocean, who will also provide GSR
with the drill rig Olympia for conversion into a nodule production
vessel, ahead of its system integration test currently scheduled
for 2025.
-- Norway: Norway recently announced a major discovery of critical
minerals on the seabed off its continental shelf, as it considers
permitting offshore exploration within its EEZ.
-- United Kingdom: In March, Norway's Loke Marine Minerals announced
that it had acquired CCZ contractor UK Seabed Resources $(UKSR.UK)$
from Lockheed Martin. UKSR holds two exploration licenses in the
CCZ and Loke intends to invest around $100 million with the aim of
commencing commercial mining by 2030.
-- Japan: Japan will begin extracting rare earths from seafloor muds,
beginning in 2024. The Diet has allocated $44m to the project
which would also include technology development.
Financial Results Overview
At December 31, 2022, TMC held cash of $46.8 million and held no debt.
TMC reported a net loss for the fourth quarter of 2022 of $109.6 million, or $0.41 per share, compared to TMC's net loss of $19.8 million, or $0.09 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2021. The net loss for the fourth quarter of 2022 included exploration and evaluation expenses of $104.3 million (Q4 2021: $12.8 million), general and administrative expenses of $7.0 million (Q4 2021: $15.4 million), partially offset by a decrease in the value of our warrants of $1.3 million. Exploration and evaluation expenses increased in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, mainly due to $69.9 million related to the fair value on March 2021 grant date ($7 per share) of the 10 million Allseas warrants which became exercisable and $8.7 million related to 10.85 million shares issued to Allseas as completion payment, both of which were announced last quarter.
General and administrative expenses decreased in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, reflecting a reduction in share-based compensation, and a reduction in consulting, communication and advertising costs expenses, as these expenses were higher in the 2021 period related to the business combination and listing of the Company on NASDAQ. The decreased costs in the fourth quarter of 2022 were partially offset by higher personnel, legal and other expenses associated with being a public company.
TMC reported a net loss for the year ended December 31, 2022 of $171 million, or $0.71 per share, compared to net loss of $141.3 million, or $0.69 per share, for the year ended December 31, 2021. Exploration evaluation expenses during the year ended December 31, 2022 were $144.6 million compared to $93 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. General and administrative expenses were $29.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to $56.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. During the year on account of successful completion of PMTS, TMC recorded expenses on account of vesting of Allseas amounting to $69.9 million and the third milestone payment to Allseas of $8.7 million. For the year ended December 31, 2022, TMC recorded total share-based compensation expense of $17.1 million of which $8.5 million was recorded in exploration and evaluation expenses and $8.6 million was recorded in general and administrative expenses.
Conference Call
TMC will hold a conference call today at 4:30 p.m. ET to provide an update on recent corporate developments, third quarter financial results and upcoming milestones.
Q4 2022 and FY2022 Conference Call Details
Date: Thursday, March 23
2023
Time: 4:30 p.m. ET
Audio-only Dial-in: Register Here
Virtual webcast with slides: Register Here
------------------
Please register with the links above at least ten minutes prior to the conference call. The virtual webcast will be available for replay in the 'Investors' tab of the Company's website under 'Investors' > 'Media' > 'Events and Presentations', approximately two hours after the event.
About The Metals Company
The Metals Company is an explorer of lower-impact battery metals from seafloor polymetallic nodules, on a dual mission: (1) supply metals for the clean energy transition with the least possible negative environmental and social impact and (2) accelerate the transition to a circular metal economy. The Company through its subsidiaries holds exploration and commercial rights to three polymetallic nodule contract areas in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean regulated by the International Seabed Authority and sponsored by the governments of Nauru, Kiribati and the Kingdom of Tonga.
More information is available at www.metals.co.
More Info
Media | media@metals.co
Investors | investors@metals.co
Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements made in this press release are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as "believe," "may," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend, " "expect," "should," "would," "plan," "predict," "potential," "seem," "seek," "future," "outlook" and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters, including related to TMC's current expectations and projections relating to its financial condition and business outlook, how long TMC's cash and liquidity will fund operations, the adoption of final regulations by the ISA, including the timing and content thereof, TMC's expectations with respect to filing an application with the ISA for an exploitation contract and the timing and content thereof, and TMC's system tests, including the timing thereof and the timing and content of environmental and operational assessments. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Most of these factors are outside TMC's control and are difficult to predict. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: TMC's strategies and future financial performance; TMC's ability to complete the environmental monitoring campaign in NORI Area D in the CCZ with respect to its pilot test; TMC's ability to submit an application for and obtain exploitation contracts for its areas in the CCZ from the ISA and what information the ISA requires to be contained in any such application; regulatory uncertainties and the impact of government regulation and political instability on TMC's resource activities; changes to any of the laws, rules, regulations or policies to which TMC is subject; the impact of extensive and costly environmental requirements on TMC's operations; environmental liabilities; the impact of polymetallic nodule collection on biodiversity in the CCZ and recovery rates of impacted ecosystems; TMC's ability to develop minerals in sufficient grade or quantities to justify commercial operations; the lack of development of seafloor polymetallic nodule deposit; uncertainty in the estimates for mineral resource calculations from certain contract areas and for the grade and quality of polymetallic nodule deposits; risks associated with natural hazards; uncertainty with respect to the specialized treatment and processing of polymetallic nodules that TMC may recover; risks associated with collective, development and processing operations, including with respect to the development of onshore processing capabilities and Allseas' expected development efforts; TMC's dependence on Allseas; fluctuations in transportation costs; fluctuations in metals prices; testing and manufacturing of equipment; risks associated with TMC's limited operating history; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; risks associated with TMC's intellectual property; and other risks and uncertainties, including those under Item 1A "Risk Factors" in TMC's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, filed by TMC with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on March 25, 2022, and in TMC's other future filings with the SEC, including TMC's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2022, filed by TMC with the SEC on August 15, 2022, and TMC's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 when filed with the SEC. TMC cautions that the foregoing list of factors is not exclusive. TMC cautions readers not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. TMC does not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statement is based except as required by law.
TMC the metals company Inc.
Consolidated Balance Sheets
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
March 23, 2023 16:16 ET (20:16 GMT)
Comments