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Hidden Gem is heading for port with her hold full of polymetallic nodules following the successful completion of a two-month deepwater pilot collection test programme in the Pacific Ocean.

Conducted across a small test area in NORI-D by a 130-strong team on board Hidden Gem, conclusion of the trials marks the first time a fully integrated nodule collection system – including riser – has been tested in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) since the 1970s.

The milestone comes three years after Allseas signed a strategic alliance with The Metals Company (TMC), formerly DeepGreen, to recover nodules responsibly from the deep ocean floor.

Our state-of-the-art pilot system achieved all ambitious production milestones during the two-month offshore test and commissioning programme in the remote Pacific between Hawaii and Mexico.

The trials concluded with a series of full-scale production runs, which netted a record haul – an estimated 4500 tonnes – of mineral-rich polymetallic nodules.

The expedition, in the CCZ of the Pacific Ocean, rounds off a highly challenging and demanding two-year development, fabrication and testing cycle.

During the historic deep-sea trials, engineers drove the pilot collector more than 83 kilometres across the ocean floor, and transported thousands of tonnes of nodules via a 4.3-kilometre riser system to our surface production vessel Hidden Gem.

Hundreds of thousands of mineral-rich polymetallic nodules have arrived on board our production vessel Hidden Gem following successful initial pilot collection runs in the Pacific.

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