Title: Life‑Cycle Assessment of Products from the NORI‑D Nodule Project

Author / Sponsor: Minviro Ltd for The Metals Company (TMC)

Date: May 2025

Report Length: 20 pages

BLUF: Minviro’s ISO‑14040/44 cradle‑to‑gate assessment shows that turning Clarion‑Clipperton Zone (CCZ) nodules into battery‑ready nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese products can cut total greenhouse‑gas emissions by 11-94 % compared with today’s dominant land‑based routes, while also lowering most other environmental‑footprint indicators. The main climate hotspot is the coal‑fuelled smelting step, offering a clear handle for future decarbonisation. 

Scope

  • System boundary: From nodules collected on the CCZ seabed to ship‑ready metal products (cradle‑to‑gate).
  • Functional units: 1 kg of dry nodules and five saleable products — manganese silicate, NiCuCo matte, nickel sulphate, cobalt sulphate and copper cathode.
  • Operational scenario: 12 Mt wet nodules per year lifted offshore, shipped mainly to Indonesia and Japan for coal‑fired rotary‑kiln‑electric‑furnace (RKEF) smelting, then to South Korea for hydrometallurgical refining.
  • Impact method: European Environmental Footprint 3.1 (16 categories) with ecoinvent 3.10 backgrounds and independent critical review. 

Key results 

Processing one kilogram of nodules releases roughly one kilogram of CO₂‑equivalent, most of it from electricity and ship fuel. Smelting the nodules into manganese silicate bumps that to about two to three kilograms. Turning the smelted alloy into a nickel‑rich matte reaches roughly five kilograms, and refining that further into high‑purity nickel sulphate comes in at nearly ten kilograms. Cobalt sulphate, a trace‑metal by‑product, tops the list at about thirty kilograms of CO₂‑eq per kilogram of cobalt product. Even at these higher steps the study still finds material‑for‑material emissions are between one‑tenth and one‑half of those from the best‑available land ores, while copper cathode sits in the low single digits.

Where the emissions sit

  • Pyrometallurgy dominates (~70‑85 %) — coal used as both reductant and heat source is the single biggest lever.
  • Grid power mix matters — shifting Indonesian and Japanese smelters to hydro, solar or nuclear cuts product footprints by up to half.
  • Allocation choices — using future price forecasts or mass‑based allocation changes individual product scores but not the overall ranking.

What’s new versus TMC’s 2023 study

  • Moves processing from wind‑powered Texas to coal‑heavy East Asia — yet still beats land ores, showing robustness.
  • Adds a transparent “kg dry nodules” functional unit, improving traceability from seabed to final products.