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Cobalt Blue Holdings (ASX: COB) has entered into a consortium agreement with Glomar Minerals to advance the processing of critical minerals mined from the seafloor.
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The now-combined parties plan to progress feasibility studies for processing subsea polymetallic nodules, with an initial focus on piloting testwork at Cobalt Blue’s Broken Hill Technology Centre in New South Wales.
Cobalt’s CEO, Dr Andrew Tong, said the aim is to deliver a “world-first” plant for supplying products to the U.S. advanced manufacturing and defence industries.
Critical minerals from polymetallic nodules are part of a national priority for the U.S. government and industry, Dr Tong explained, providing a unique multi-metal feedstock in a single high-grade resource stream.
In April CY25, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order (EO) 14285, “Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources.”
That historic, critmins-geared executive order identified polymetallic nodules as a national priority and sought to expedite permitting for U.S. and U.S.-affiliated companies from U.S. agencies to facilitate the commercial extraction of minerals like Co, Ni, and Mn from subsea nodules in U.S. waters and beyond.
“Our collaboration with Glomar provides a compelling opportunity to utilise Cobalt Blue’s patented hydrometallurgical technology for a new, significant multi-commodity feedstock,” Dr Tong said. Polymetallic nodules offer the prospect of supplying multiple critical minerals from a single resource stream, he pointed out.
“Moreover, this initiative delivers the U.S. Government’s strategic focus on derisking supply chains to support defence and advanced manufacturing.
“Our technical work to date indicates that high metal recoveries are achievable.”
The Glomar/Cobalt Blue consortium plans to build and operate the first polymetallic nodules processing facility in the U.S., known as Project Infinity.
Polymetallic nodules provide a high‐grade and large‐scale resource that can be processed with minimal waste generation.
Glomar is a specialist explorer, collector and processor of seabed polymetallic nodules. Through its wholly owned subsidiary U.K. Seabed Resources (UKSR), Glomar Minerals holds two exploration contracts for polymetallic nodules in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean, totalling 133,000 sq. km.
COB is up +6.76%, to sell at 7.9¢ on Monday afternoon.
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