The Metals Company Inc. (TMC), an explorer of the world’s largest undeveloped resource of critical battery metals, has announced that it has successfully produced high-temperature material (calcine) during the first phase of a commercial-scale campaign to process a 2,000-tonne sample of deep-seafloor polymetallic nodules at its partner PAMCO’s Hachinohe Rotary Kiln Electric-Arc Furnace facility in Hachinohe, Japan.

Undertaken on PAMCO’s 131-meter-long #6 commercial kiln, engineers fed approximately 1200 tonnes of nodules into the kiln via conveyor at up to 60 tonnes per hour and produced roughly 500 tonnes of calcine which will cool slowly before being transferred to PAMCO’s demonstration smelting facility [see video]. With sufficient quantities of calcine material now produced to proceed to the next phase of the trial, PAMCO intends to commence commercial-scale smelting of the calcine into a high-grade nickel-copper-cobalt alloy and manganese silicate in the coming months.

TMC’s Head of Onshore Development, Dr. Jeffrey Donald, commented: “After years of carefully planned development, bench-scale tests, engineering studies, and pilot demonstrations, it’s very exciting to see the world’s first commercial-scale processing of our nodules. With decades of experience in processing nickel laterite at an industrial scale in its Hachinohe facility and with dozens of highly capable and disciplined technical and operating personnel on our project, PAMCO is the perfect partner to help optimize our near-zero-solid-waste flowsheet in preparation for commercial production. We appreciate PAMCO’s professional efforts and technical contributions to the development of this process.”

PAMCO’s senior executive officer in charge of the project, Mr. Chitaru Okamura, commented: "We are pleased to announce the trial production of calcined nodules for the first smelting trial using our commercial scale kiln was completed in collaboration with PAMCO and TMC technical teams. This marks an important milestone in commercial nodule processing into battery metals, representing the world's first trial. We are excited to move forward with the next important challenge, the smelting campaign using our facilities."

The process data and operational experience gathered during the commercial-scale processing trial will inform expected definitive processing agreements between the parties. In November 2023, TMC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with PAMCO to complete a feasibility study to process 1.3 million tonnes of wet polymetallic nodules (PMN) per year into high-grade nickel-copper-cobalt alloy and manganese silicate, which are feedstock for the production of lithium-ion batteries, electrical infrastructure, and steel.