Impossible Metals Collaborates with BGR to Test Hovering Selective Harvesting Robot
Impossible Metals has announced a collaboration with the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) to pilot test its Eureka III selective harvesting autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) for polymetallic nodule collection in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ).
The four-day test will collect data regarding the technical feasibility and environmental impact of the Eureka III collector, which will pick up nodules at a water depth of approximately 4,200 meters. BGR will conduct environmental monitoring from the German research vessel SONNE.
“We are excited to test our innovative impact-minimizing collector technology in BGR’s exploration contract area in the CCZ in January 2026,” said Oliver Gunasekara, CEO and Co-Founder of Impossible Metals. “Eureka III is our first production-sized collection vehicle, building upon what we learned from Eurekas I and II.”
Eureka III is approximately the size of a 20-foot shipping container and has 16 collection arms compared to 3 on Eureka II. Eureka AUVs hover, but do not land on the seafloor, and can avoid picking nodules with attached/adjacent visible life using AI.
“The planned Eureka III test site shares a control area with the 2021 test site of GSR’s Patania II pre-prototype collector, allowing for comparison of the immediate and long-term environmental impact of the two different collection techniques,” said Annemiek Vink, Marine Geo-Biologist and Project Coordinator at BGR
The International Seabed Authority (ISA) requires an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to be submitted and made available for public comment a year before a test is performed. The EIS requires a sediment plume model to predict the potential size of the impacted area, which was developed by DHI Water & Environment Inc (DHI), a specialist company in the assessment of marine sediment plumes.
“The Eureka III sediment plume model for this small-scale test predicts that sediment suspension caused by the collector remains very close to the seafloor (within 5 meters), and over 93% of suspended sediment settles within the mined area itself,” said Tom Foster, President of DHI.
The draft Environmental Impact Statement is currently under review by German government authorities. Following their review and subject to their approval of the activity as Sponsoring State of the contractor BGR, the EIS will be finalized and submitted to the ISA by the end of the year. The DHI report on the Eureka III collector plume modeling study can be downloaded from here.