TMC Applauds ~350 Former U.S. Political and Military Leaders Urging Senate to Ratify Law of the Sea for Deep-Sea Mine Sites "Each Containing a Trillion Dollars in Value"

• An influential group of former U.S. government officials and military officers — including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta — urged Senators to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty (UNCLOS), so “The United States can take its seat on the Council of the International Seabed Authority”, and “resume its leading role in oceans matters.”
• As commercial mining regulations near adoption by the ISA, the officials wrote a letter to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations urging a formal vote on ratifying the Law of the Sea treaty, which has provided the U.S. the largest exclusive economic zone and continental shelf jurisdiction globally and would ensure freedom of navigation for American ships and aircraft.
• UNCLOS ratification remains a legislative uncertainty for the U.S., but the country can still potentially process and refine nodules through allied countries and contractors, and TMC’s offshore exploration and onshore processing campaigns have involved a wide array of American companies and universities.

NEW YORK, March 14, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TMC the metals company Inc. (Nasdaq: TMC) (“TMC” or the “Company”), an explorer of the world’s largest estimated undeveloped source of critical battery metals, today welcomed a letter from around 350 former U.S. government officials and military officers urging the U.S. Senate to re-evaluate a formal vote on ratifying the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) treaty.

The letter, which follows this week’s introduction of the Responsible Use of Seafloor Resources Act (RUSRA) in Congress, was signed by around 189 American ambassadors, 73 generals, 50 admirals, four directors of national intelligence and scores of other distinguished supporters. The co-signatories warned how “China and Russia have taken advantage of our absence to work actively to undermine critical United States economic and national security interests,” and that the U.S. had “already lost two of our four ‘USA’ designated deep seabed mine sites, each containing a trillion dollars in value of the strategic minerals of copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese and rare earths” needed for national security and the energy transition.