Hans Smit is President and Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Minerals LLC, a U.S.-based seabed minerals developer with a wholly owned Cook Islands subsidiary, Moana Minerals. A subsea engineering leader with more than two decades of underwater mining and offshore systems experience, he is positioning the company’s Cook Islands project to supply cobalt for batteries, along with nickel, manganese, and copper. The nodules also contain rare earth elements, and his messaging emphasizes rigorous environmental baselines and allied supply chain security.

Trained as an electrical and electronics engineer, Smit holds a National Technical Certificate from Wingfield Technical College in Cape Town, a Project Management Diploma from Damelin Business School, and the Project Management Professional credential from the Project Management Institute. His earlier career included delivery of large underwater mining systems for diamonds off Namibia, scoping studies for seafloor massive sulfides, and development of tracked seabed sampling and crawler solutions that informed later commercial programs.

Smit now leads Ocean Minerals and Moana Minerals on the Cook Islands EL3 exploration license, granted in February 2022. The 23,630 square kilometers under license target polymetallic nodules. Under his direction the team has executed multiple research cruises, expanded multibeam and photographic mapping, and advanced a technical report aligned with U.S. S-K 1300 disclosure standards.

In public remarks Smit links ocean geology to strategic security and industrial policy. Briefing U.S. lawmakers in 2025, he called for the United States to “reassert American leadership in the global race for critical mineral independence” and stated that “the resources of the future are on the seabed.” He also treats outreach as part of the technical mission, using data products and expedition storytelling to explain how nodule fields are mapped, sampled, and assessed for environmental impact.