A broad international consortium has developed the first handbook for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosure in relation to marine minerals. The purpose of the guidance document is to enable transparent and consistent reporting of material ESG topics of marine mineral projects in the context of global standards.

Marine minerals are emerging as a potential complementary source of critical metals to meet the projected increase in demand, driven in part by the transition to a more mineral-intensive renewable energy system.

The Marine Minerals ESG Handbook is the result of a two-year iterative process with involvement of marine mineral developers, contractors, financial institutions, science institutions, non-governmental organisations and regulators.

The objective of the ESG Handbook is to:

• Provide guidance to meet international expectations regarding ESG disclosure for the marine minerals industry.

• Provide an overview of the material ESG topics for the marine minerals industry.

• Provide recommendations for the consistent disclosure of information for each material topic.

• Provide a tool for structured ESG documentation enabling useful ESG disclosures for internal and external stakeholders.

• Facilitate transparency and consistent reporting to inspire and facilitate optimization and improvement across the sector.

The marine minerals ESG guidance builds on existing global non-financial performance and ESG reporting standards from recognised institutions while considering the specific challenges and opportunities of the marine minerals industry. This disclosure guideline is voluntary and aims to provide a uniform basis for communication with a wider set of stakeholder groups. The current global guideline for ESG disclosure is not dependent on, nor replacing regulations.

The projects reference group has consisted of the following companies and organizations:

• Adepth
• Advisory Committee on Protection of the Sea (ACOPS)
• Aker BP
• AU Commission and the African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC)
• Deep Ocean
• DeepSea Mining Alliance (DSMA)
• DHI
• DNV
• Equinor
• Fearnley Securities
• Fórum Oceano
• GCE Ocean Technology
• Global Sea Mineral Resources (GSR)
• Green Minerals
• Guangzhou Geological Survey (GMGS) / China Geological Survey (CGS)
• INESC TEC
• International Marine Minerals Society (IMMS)
• Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC)
• Loke / UK Seabed Resources
• MiningImpact project
• Namibian Marine Phosphate (Pty) Ltd.
• Natural History Museum, UK
• Nautilus Minerals Niugini
• Norwegian Forum for Marine Minerals (NMM)
• NOV
• Ocean Minerals
• Odyssey Marine Exploration
• Pôle Mer Bretagne Atlantique
• The Cobalt Institute
• The Metals Company (TMC)
• The Nickel Institute
• The Pacific Community (SPC)
• Transocean
• International Seabed Authority (ISA) (Observer status)
• Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (Observer status)

GCE Ocean Technology served as the project owner, while the handbook was prepared by DNV.