A deal between a blank-check firm and a Canadian developer aims to tap into deep ocean resources to become the world’s largest producer of metals for electric-vehicle batteries while keeping its environmental footprint and costs low.
DeepGreen Metals Inc. announced March 4 that it will combine with Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, to create a combined entity called The Metals Co. with an estimated equity value of about $2.9 billion.
The deal with the SPAC offers DeepGreen the speed and certainty needed to move operations forward, DeepGreen Chairman and CEO Gerard Barron said in an interview with S&P Global Market Intelligence.
“It’s all of a sudden started to dawn on people that, if we’re going to move away from fossil fuels, we’re going to need to produce billions of tons of metals,” Barron said.
“The externalities from fossil fuels are now very well understood. We haven’t given the same attention to onshore mining practices, and actually, when you look into them, it’s not all that pretty.”
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