The CEO of the company that has applied for a lease for commercial sea mining in American Samoa’s Exclusive Economic Zone says their company will commit 1% of profits from their operation for American Samoa.
Oliver Gunasekara was one of three presenters via Zoom at Wednesday night’s public forum on deep sea mining held at the Lee Auditorium.
The company estimates to generate a profit of $1 billion a year if it’s given the go ahead to mine critical minerals in this region.
Gunasekara stated that Impossible Metals is under no legal obligation to do this however it feels it’s the right thing to do. He said the territory would also benefit in millions of dollars from a build up associated with the deep sea mining operation. Possibilities include upgrading of the port, basing a permanent Coast Guard ship in the territory, military investments and new jobs that would be created from a new industry.
His presentation touched on the world demand for critical metals such as copper, nickel, cobalt and manganese, which he said is currently worth half a trillion dollars a year and is forecast to reach $1 trillion by the end of 2025.
Gunasekara said is the world’s biggest supplier of these metals and he believes part of President Trump’s efforts to secure critical minerals is to combat this dominance.
The Impossible Metals CEO explained that American Samoa has the opportunity to become like Norway whose GDP has grown 8 times since 1960, when it was the same as American Samoa is now, with an economy dependent on fishing. The reason for this exponential growth he said was because of off shore oil ad gas, and investment in deep sea mining. Now the pension fund for Norway is worth $1.74 trillion a year.
Gunasekara said equipment that their company has developed for harvesting of nodules was designed to avoid environmental impact.
Play Audio
The equipment has been tested in Florida waters.
The company plans to operate 271 robots and envisions generating a profit of $1 billion a year for 25 years.
Gunasekara said Impossible Metals commits that it will only mine if its satisfied that their environmental impact assessment shows no material long lasting impact on the marine habitat or other uses of the ocean including fishing and recreation. If the assessment proves otherwise they can go do something else, the military would have plenty of uses of their robots and other applications they’ve developed.
Tapaau Dan Aga posed this question to the Impossible Metals CEO.
Play Audio
And Gunasekara’s response.
Play Audio
Aga had also asked for “more authentic not symbolic” engagement with Samoan institutions. The Impossible Metals CEO agreed to having more discussions, including with elders, churches and community to discuss the pros and cons of deep sea mining.
Moira Maiava said the 1% profit share was an insult since this is our ocean that will be mined. She also wanted to see actual footage of the equipment being tested in local waters rather than animation used in the presentation.
Gunasekara believed $10 million a year was not insignificant , pointing out that their company is under no legal authority to share this profit but is doing this voluntarily. He also pointed to the associated benefits from jobs and infrastructure.
He said they have not done testing in American Samoa but this is something they hope to do…possibly next year they will bring the robots here.
Taotasi Archie Soliai asked for clarification on how the 1% profits was arrived at seeing that there are no cost estimates since extraction has not started.
Again the CEO said that this is what their Board of Directors has approved, hopefully the federal government would agree to share lease fees and royalties with the territory.
We will report on the presentation by Victor Vescovo, a veteran undersea explorer and venture capitalist who debunked some of the statements made in the Impossible Metals presentation,
