Our Team

Dr. John Halkyard

Chairman of the Board, Member, & Founder

Dr. Halkyard has over thirty years in the development and successful implementation of novel deep-water oil & gas production and drilling facilities, including the first floating production system in the Gulf of Mexico and the award-winning spar drilling and production platform. In recent years, Dr. Halkyard returned his attention to ocean mining as Chief Technical Advisor for Technip USA, Inc., a major international offshore engineering company, and as the founder of the ocean mining consultancy, Deep Reach Technology, Inc. (DRT) and Ocean Minerals, LLC.

Dr. Halkyard was hired by Kennecott Exploration, Inc. to lead their ocean mining system development efforts, where he built a staff of over 25 scientists and engineers, and numerous contractors to execute the development program. He helped established laboratory facilities in La Jolla, California including a simulated seabed area for testing collectors and various specialized facilities for testing the mining and lifting processes.  He also planned and executed six expeditions in Kennecott’s CCZ mine site (USA Area 4) to collect engineering and exploration data, and initiated and executed specific successful development activities, including: 

• Instrumented towing of pipe sections to evaluate on bottom towing forces
• Designed a specialized bottom towed sled with three differently loaded wheels to measure trafficability parameters (Bekker Values) for sled and tracked vehicle design
• Designed and built a free fall cone penetrometer to measure soil strength
• Participated in nodule dredging of 200 tons of nodules in one 38 day cruise
• Served as Chief Scientist on two exploration cruises using box corers and FG samplers to establish a high-fidelity resource estimate

He planned and led a program to prove the performance of a nodule collector, which involved two years of land-based testing and a successful deep-sea test of a prototype collector in the Kennecott mine site of the CCZ (Heine & Suh, 1978).

Dr. Halkyard initiated a program to design, analyze and test various riser and lift systems including the largest airlift test conducted to date, and developed the theory of a “froth flow” airlift system that is comparable in efficiency to submerged pumps (Doyle & Halkyard).

In 1978, Dr. Halkyard became Secretary of the Kennecott Consortium and was responsible for managing the consortium’s bankable feasibility study conducted by Bechtel Corporation, with assistance from Global Marine Development Company.  This involved preparing detailed cost estimates for the offshore and onshore facilities. Bechtel studied onshore facilities in both the U.S. and Mexico. Dr. Halkyard met personally with representatives of Bechtel and the Minister of Patrimony of Mexico to negotiate terms for siting the nodule process facility in Mexico.

The Kennecott Consortium ceased activities in 1981 following the Law of the Sea Convention. Dr. Halkyard continued consulting for Kennecott related to its application for a mine site under U.S. Legislation and conducted a significant study for the University of Hawaii and the U.S. Minerals Management Service on the Technology for Mining of Cobalt Rich Manganese Crusts from Seamounts (Halkyard, 1985).

In 2004, Dr. Halkyard, as Chief Research Advisor for Technip USA, was responsible for the deep-sea mining Scoping Study for Nautilus Minerals Solwara 1 Project.

In 2010, Dr. Halkyard along with colleagues applied for and were later awarded a patent for a method to extract seafloor massive sulfides that does not require the use of seafloor crawler vehicles. This led to the formation of DRT. Between 2010 and the present DRT has been engaged by several other ocean mining ventures for consulting and performing scoping studies, including the multi-year Army Research Lab Cooperative Research Agreement on seabed extraction of rare earth elements which brought him to the Cook Islands in the first place.

In addition to founding OML and serving as President and Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Halkyard is also Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for DRT. and President of John Halkyard & Associates, LLC Consulting Offshore Engineers, Houston, Texas USA.  

Since his retirement from Technip, Dr. Halkyard has served as visiting lecturer and professor at several universities, including the University of Western Australia, National University of Singapore (2007–2014), Harbin Engineering University, China (2008–2011), and the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia (2015 – present).  He is a past member of the Marine Board of the National Research Council, for the National Academy of Engineering, a registered Mechanical Engineer, a Life Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, a member of SME and a Qualified Person under the NI 43-101 Canadian Mining Code.  He served on the Board of Directors for ASME-International Petroleum Technology Institute, as Chairman of the Executive Committee/Offshore for the Ocean and Arctic Engineering Division of ASME, and Section Chair for the Marine Technology Society. He also serves on the academic review committees for the University of Hawaii and held a similar position in the past for the U. S. Naval Academy.  

Dr. Halkyard has published two books, has authored chapters in several others, and has published numerous refereed articles in conference proceedings and journals on ocean engineering, ocean mining, and related topics.  His book on Floating Structure Design and Analysis is used by several universities as a textbook.

Dr. Halkyard holds a B.S. in Engineering Science from Purdue University, an M.S. in Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an Sc.D. in Ocean Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mr. Hans Smit

President, Chief Executive Officer, Board Member

Mr. Smit is a successful and experienced Engineer, Business & Project Manager who has successfully managed several profitable businesses and completed numerous large complex projects.

Mr. Smit’s experience in underwater mining is extensive and includes the following projects:

• Joint Project Manager and Electrical and System engineering of the development of the underwater Crawler technology and associated systems now used by De Beers for mining of diamonds off the west coast of Africa.
• Provided technical consulting in assisting Nautilus Minerals in raising funds by presenting crawler-based mining solution to UK-based financiers.
• Jointly project managed the System Scoping study for Neptune Minerals Inc. to evaluate and then define a mining solution for the extraction of SMS minerals from the seafloor.
• Project managed and delivered the Namibian Marine Phosphate scoping study report.
• Project managed and system engineered a seafloor sampling system for commercial use in the sampling of deep-water seafloor minerals deposits. 
• Designed, built, and commissioned a customized electrically driven 700t winch system designed specifically for deploying and recovering mining tools on the seafloor.  Special features are redundancy and reduction of operator workload.
• Project managed, designed, and implemented an automated control and electrical system for Namco’s large diameter underwater sampling tool.
• Project managed, designed, built, and implemented the automation and electrical system for Namco’s sampling vessel sample processing plant complete with sample tracking and sterilization. 
• Project managed, designed, and implemented an automated control and electrical system for Samicor’s large diameter underwater sampling tool, launch and recovery system, and deck handling equipment. 
• Project and contract managed the exploration and deep-water drill program executed by Neptune Minerals at the Tinakula site.  Recovered 398 meters of the core with core recovery rates in excess of 70%.
• Project and contract managed the research campaign executed by OML in December of 2019 and associated test programs.  Recovered 250kg of Cook Islands nodules, conducted laboratory metallurgical testing, and developed and upgraded FFG for use as a resource tool.

In addition to his position as CEO for Ocean Minerals, Mr. Smit represents Denith Engineering, (Pty) Ltd based in Cape Town, South Africa as President of Denith Engineering, LLC in the US by providing sales, marketing, consulting, engineering, and project management services. The Denith Engineering Group provide consulting and engineering solutions that result in the design, manufacture, and supply of underwater mining solution, launch and recovery systems, handling system, and bespoke winch solutions.

Mr. Smit has also served as the Chief Executive Officer for Neptune Minerals where he was Responsible for business management including Strategy, marketing, P&L, budgets, reporting, and Human Resources, and working with the board to set and implement business strategic objectives and raise capital for business operational funds.  At Neptune Minerals, Mr. Smit also served as SVP Engineering and Marine Operations and was responsible for providing management and guidance to multi-functional project teams, all engineering-related activities across disciplines (electrical, mechanical, and Naval Architecture), and accountable for engineering and exploration projects and operational budgets and schedules. He managed and delivered highly complex technological exploration projects including the development of complex SOW, business proposals, project schedule/financials, and managing multiple global projects. He was responsible for vendor selection and management, procurement and purchasing, contracts, and equipment supplies as well as managing configuration and compliance with relevant standards and codes of practice including quality management, implementation of quality practices and procedures, and all Health and Safety compliance.  While in this capacity, Neptune successfully completed a $17 million complex offshore drilling campaign.

Mr. Smit served as Managing Director for IHC Marine and Mineral Projects, a division of the international Dutch company Royal IHC and an engineering and equipment manufacturing company employing mechanical, electrical, and electronic engineers servicing the underwater mining, oil & gas services, general marine, and land-based mining industries worldwide.  In this role, he was responsible for business management including Strategy, marketing, P&L, budgets, reporting, and Human Resources. He also conducted marketing and sales-related activities including a compilation of technical proposals, SOW, business proposals, project schedule/financials, and tenders, and provided management and guidance to multi-functional project teams and oversaw design reviews related activities across disciplines (electrical, electronic, mechanical and structural). He personally project-managed a scoping study of a grab-based underwater mining solution for Neptune Minerals.  Mr. Smit held full accountability for business and operational budgets and schedules as well as overall responsibility for procurement, quality, configuration, and health and safety.  Mr. Smit’s efforts in this role helped to secure IHC MMP’s place as the center for technology development in underwater mining.  

As Projects Director for Marine and Mineral Projects (MMP) in Cape Town, South Africa, Mr. Smit’s key duties and responsibilities included all Client related activities, proposal generation, negotiation, relationship management, presentations, reporting, management, and guidance to multi-functional project teams, overseeing all engineering related activities across disciplines (EE, ME and Naval Architecture) and full accountability for project and operational budgets and schedules.  He oversaw and managed the delivery of very highly complex global technology projects running simultaneously while providing oversight and involvement in compiling complex SOW, business proposals, project schedule/financials.  He held overall responsibility for vendor selection and management, procurement and purchasing, contracts and equipment supplies, configuration and compliance with relevant standards and codes of practice, Quality management and implementation of quality practices and procedures, and workplace and job site Health and Safety compliance. Mr. Smit also served as Managing Director for the Automation Division while at MMP.

While at MMP, Mr. Smit was responsible for the successful delivery of the world’s largest underwater diamond mining system valued at $35 million and achieving full production within six weeks.  

MMP is an engineering and equipment manufacturing company employing 65 staff that included software, mechanical, electrical and electronic engineers servicing the underwater mining, oil & gas services, general marine, and land-based mining industries worldwide.

Mr. Smit holds a National Technical Certificate in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Wingfield Technical College of Cape Town, South Africa, as well as a Project Management Diploma from Damelin Business School and a Project Management Professional Credential from the Project Management Institute, both of Cape Town, South Africa.

Ms. Vaine Arioka

In-Country Manager - Cook Islands

Investing time and talent into “Expanding Knowledge through Exploration” for a financially independent Cook Islands, after fourteen and a half transformational years, ending in July 2023 as Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer for Bank of the Cook Islands.

Vaine’s banking experience includes serving with ANZ and CIDB, and is underscored with a Masters in International Economics and Finance (University of Queensland) as well as an Affiliate in Development Bank Management (Asia Pacific Institute of Development Finance), and Member of New Zealand Institute of Directors.

It is important to lend your talents where needed and one which Vaine has nurtured by active service outside of the banking world, holding various board positions in non-government and government organisations, including now the Cook Islands Chamber of Commerce, Mediation Cook Islands, Punanga Tauturu Inc, and the Cook Islands Business Trade and Investment Board.

Vaine has also held membership with various women and girls' organisations such as Cook Islands Women’s Counselling Centre, Cook Islands Girl Guides, Cook Islands Business and Professional Women’s Association and as Chairperson for the Finance Commission of the Cook Islands Red Cross.

Mr. David Huber

Board Member & SVP Business Development

Mr. Huber’s experience and responsibility has all been in the offshore areas of the world with the majority in deepwater.  Companies worked for include two majors (Exxon, Amoco), a national oil company (Soekor/PetroSA), large independents (Hamilton, ADDAX,), and two small independents which he co-founded, (Mariner Energy, Deep Gulf Energy). Direct responsibility has included projects of a total value of $2 billion and production operations of up to 110,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.  Business responsibilities included the plans for several companies to make the strategic move into deepwater, subsea, and floating production.  

In 2005 as co-founder of Deep Gulf Energy LP (DGE), a deepwater oil exploration and production company, Mr. Huber was involved in the acquisition of financing through First Reserve Corp, a large private equity energy capital firm.  His technical responsibilities included drilling/completion operations, subsea and process facilities design, project execution, and production operations and his commercial work included all contracts, insurance, leveraged farm-in deals for other deepwater fields to diversify risk and planning/economies for new projects. While under his leadership, DGE’s safety record has been excellent. Retired in 2016, Mr. Huber presently serves on DGE’s board and returns as a consultant during critical offshore operations and strategy sessions.  

From 1996 to 2005, Mr. Huber served as Sr VP Deepwater for Mariner Energy, Inc.  In that position, he was responsible for the company's deepwater drilling, production, reservoir, business, economics, HSE, and projects from conception through production. While at Mariner Energy, Mr. Huber helped to grow the company from a small land player to the most experienced small independent deepwater operator in the Gulf of Mexico.  The company went public on the NYSE and then was bought by Apache for $2.7 billion.

From 1974 through 1996, Mr. Huber held increasing levels of responsibility and provided leadership and advice/consultation for a range of offshore energy projects.  He specializes in talking small teams and start-ups through capital raising by helping to develop project concepts, costs, risks, and economics and working with clients to build teams and business and technical plans. His experience includes numerous economic feasibility studies for energy projects that ultimately moved ahead to successful operations. He has worked with clients to review and improve all matters of safety, budgets, cost control, contracts, and operations.  In his earliest days in the offshore oil industry, Mr. Huber held numerous positions for which he was responsible for operations engineering activities.  This included the management of drilling, production, petroleum, QA/QC, and project engineers. In parallel, his work outside of direct operations included budget preparation and liaison with government departments. 

Mr. Huber has been directly responsible and/or indirectly involved in many major purchases and disposals of fields and producing assets for both exploration and exploitation, negotiating farm-ins and farm-outs, transportation and process handling agreements, bank loans, corporate strategy/tactics, and budgets.  He has developed business and technical plans for various private and government oil companies to strategically enter the deepwater and is the founding principal of two deepwater oil companies (DGE, Mariner) and part of a four-man team that started a third (ADDAX).

Mr. Huber’s honours include: "Who's Who in America", World Edition, for contribution to deepwater technology, and "Who's Who in Energy Management".  While Mr. Huber was at Hamilton, he was responsible for the implementation of the Safety Management Systems.  During this time, the company was named "Best Operator in the UK" in 1990 by Kleinwort Benson, a major stockbroker/merchant bank, as a result of its financial and safety record.  His company Mariner Energy received the "Best in the Gulf" award for its first deepwater project.

Mr. Huber holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta, and a Master of Science in Ocean Engineering from Oregon State University.

Mr. Karl Winter

Board Member

Mr. Winter’s experience includes design, manufacturing, quality control, offshore installation supervision and management, and project execution for a diversity of subsea well completion and production equipment projects.  He has been deeply involved with field development planning and primarily involved with subsea field development execution.  His range of project and equipment responsibilities includes procurement, fabrication, manufacture, testing, and installation of subsea pipelines, umbilicals, manifolds and terminations, subsea hookup, and commissioning. 

Mr. Winter is the founder, CEO, and President of the international offshore engineering company, Ocean Flow International.  He has also founded and owns several other companies, including equipment companies that perform heavy fabrication and welding, control valve supply and repair, as well as real estate and capital finance companies.

Mr. Winter holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from University of Aberdeen, Master of Science (Ocean Engineering) (MSc) from University of London, Bachelor of Science (Engineering) (BSc Honors) from University of Dublin, Diploma in Ocean Engineering from University College London, and a Diploma in Production Engineering from Dublin Institute of Technology.  Karl is also a long-time helicopter pilot and certified by the Federal Aviation Administration Part 61.5 Rotorcraft.

Mr. David Keddington

Board Member

Before being named to his current position in 2018, Mr. Keddington served as Managing Director, Global Supply Chain.  Since joining Transocean in 2006, Mr. Keddington has held leadership roles of increasing responsibility in Corporate Planning, Marketing and Finance.  Mr. Keddington has worked for Transocean in several geographic locations across the world including Switzerland, Egypt, and Malaysia.

Mr. Keddington received a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Utah and a Master in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.

Ms. Laurie Meyer

SVP Projects

Ms. Meyer has broad experience in engineering team management, research and development, and technology insertion and systems engineering for large scale high technology projects.  This includes over 25 years in the Aerospace industry for scientific and communications satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles, ground control systems, and data product generation and distribution for government and commercial customers.  

While part of Lockheed Martin, and holding various positions of increasing responsibility, ultimately reaching the level of Chief Technologist, Ms. Meyer provided leadership in the research and promotion of advanced technologies to address customer-defined hard problems using novel solutions.  She identified and coordinated teams of senior scientists and subject matter experts across the corporation to craft custom solutions for clients and also supported program startups and numerous proposals. 

Ms. Meyer has supported a wide range of programs and customers, as an expert in System Integration and Systems Engineering.  She served as primary customer interface, providing direct support as required, supporting project planning, system development, integration and testing, transition to operations/commissioning, sustainment, and decommissioning.  Her experience in projects is across the full project Full Life Cycle, including the development of low Technology Readiness Level (TRL) “Drawing Board” technology, Mid-level TRL “Prototyping at Reasonable Scale” and High TRL “Transition to Operations” projects.  Her teams have successfully transitioned multiple new technologies from the lab to full operations. 

Ms. Meyer executed multiple assignments as the liaison between government program offices and between development contractors.  She also served as the principal integrator for multiple successful technology insertion programs, providing new mission capabilities and greatly improved system performance.  These included “Quick Reaction Capability” projects with aggressive schedules and cutting-edge technologies.  Her experience also encompasses the management of engineering change and System Risk Management, through Risk identification and Risk Mitigation plan development and execution.  

In her early career, as a Systems Engineer/Staff Engineer at Hughes Aircraft Corporation Ms. Meyer analyzed and predicted spacecraft dynamic performance for key mission events, analyzed orbit insertion scenarios, conducted constellation trade studies, and interfaced with sister programs for operational data exchange and engineering change management.  Ms. Meyer developed analysis tools to support operational trades and system performance modeling and analyzed satellite communications x-link acquisition performance. 

In her later career at Lockheed Martin, Ms. Meyer served as the Technical Director and Chief Architect for the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion project, and Chief Technologist for Marine Renewable Energy projects.  In this capacity, she provided technical leadership for engineering teams in this new business area for the organization. In this role, she developed and presented an OTEC Pilot Plant technical architecture baseline to multiple potential international customers and development partners, generating investment interest and paving the way for successful ongoing business negotiations.  

She also planned and directed an R&D program in excess of $15 million, resulting in numerous patents and enabling winning proposals to the U.S. Department of Energy and US Navy/Naval Facilities Command. Ms. Meyer also re-planned major externally funded R&D projects to get back within budget and schedule, satisfying customers with new scope and focus and ensuring maximum value in terms of technology risk reduction.  She performed the primary interface functions for technical discussions with an internal network of corporate senior scientists and subject matter experts as well as outside experts (Universities, Government labs, and Non-profits). 

Ms. Meyer directed the engineering team for a $12 million Navy-funded OTEC project, made up of talent from 13 different geographically distributed Marine Industry and Offshore Oil & Gas industry companies.  She led this diverse team through multiple concept/architecture trades and pre-FEED design work.  During this time, she first met and worked with Dr. Halkyard, whose consulting company John Halkyard and Associates provided specialized engineering support for the Lockheed OTEC project.

Ms. Meyer’s experience includes integrating results of ongoing R&D into architecture trades and updated strategic plans based on findings in the lab and in the field (prototyping), interfacing directly with regulatory agencies (US DOE, NOAA, USCG) on OTEC for technology readiness discussions and supporting NOAA sponsored industry workshops as a Subject Matter Expert.  She has authored multiple Proposal Technical and Management volumes, developed Statement of Work scope for subcontractors/vendors, created Risk Management/Risk Mitigation programs, co-authored articles on OTEC commercialization readiness and technology development and presented at conferences. 

Ms. Meyer was Vice President and Chief Operations Officer for DRT from 2012 through 2017, where she served as a project engineer for a number of deep-water engineering projects.  During this time, she also served as OTEC subject matter expert for the U.S. Dept of Energy sponsored committee in the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards group.  In 2013 she authored the proposal for DRT’s US Army Research Labs (ARL) funded study to identify seabed-based secure sources for Rare Earth Elements. Ms. Meyer was the principal investigator for the resulting ARL-funded project to investigate the economic and technological viability of recovering commercially significant levels of Rare Earth Elements from various deep ocean mineral resources.In this role, she managed a diverse and geographically distributed team of engineers, geologists, and environmental and policy experts. This project ultimately led to Ocean Minerals’ 2016 Sediment Agreement with the Cook Islands Investment Corporation.  

Ms. Meyer holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

Mr. Gary van Eck

SVP Operations

Mr. van Eck’s experience ranges from initial exploration and permitting and concept studies, to project implementation and operation in diverse locations such as Southern Africa, New Zealand, and Alaska.

Specific examples of experience include:

• Project management of large, complex, high-value mining and offshore projects since the early 1990s, including the world’s largest marine mining vessel in 2007, which achieved full production targets within six weeks of the start of commissioning.
• Developed and implemented strategies for the establishment of offshore mining operations as independent business units; including negotiation of ship charter agreements for numerous operational requirements and governmental permitting negotiations.
• General Manager of AuruMar, a junior offshore mining and exploration company, with worldwide operations.
• Established and subsequently managed a new marine mining operation on the west coast of South Africa.
• Development and implementation of safety culture transformation project within a global mining company with both marine and terrestrial mining operations
• Recognized for in-depth knowledge of integration of, business, project and portfolio development; safety; environmental, technical, statutory, and stakeholder management activities.

Mechanical engineering and Naval Architecture degrees, supported by business and project management qualifications (including PMP®), and with extensive business and management experience, including risk and safety management systems.

Mr. van Eck has reviewed and completed many Concept and Pre-Feasibility Studies related to offshore mining.  During the course of these studies, he has worked with consultants in North America, Europe, South America, and New Zealand. These include e a concept study that involves hard rock cutting in an underwater environment. He has established an extensive network of geological, mineral resource management, and technical experts in the field of marine mining. 

Mr. van Eck is currently leading the Group Safety discipline for a major international mining company, directing the approach to safety risk management and safety leadership.

Mr. John McIntyre

Geology Manager - Moana Minerals Ltd

John McIntyre is Moana’s Geology Manager; his primary responsibilities are the quantification and charecterisation of existing nodule resources and the discovery of additional nodule fields.  He also advises management on other geological issues that arise during Moana’s exploration activities.

Mr. McIntyre has worked as a geologist in terrestrial exploration for 44 years. Primarily for copper and gold, with occasional forays into a wide range of commodities including uranium, lead/zinc, iron, tin, and coal.  Whilst largely in exploration, his experience includes an aggregate of four years in operating mines and a similar period as an engineering geologist.

During this exploration work, Mr. McIntyre has been instrumental in the discovery of two world class mineral deposits: the Rio Blanco porphyry copper/molybdenum deposit in Peru, and the Caspiche porphyry copper/gold deposit in Chile.

Since 1989, he has worked as a consultant to both large corporate groups (Kennecott/Rio Tinto, BHP, Barrick, Cyprus Minerals) and a large number of smaller exploration startups.  From 2000 to 2003 he was founder and Managing Director of London listed Latin American Copper plc, growing the company and increasing he share price by over three times in some of the most difficult equity markets for the mineral industry.

From 2004 to 2013 he was principal consultant for JMc Explorations, a company providing exploration services to companies operating in Chile and elsewhere in Latin America.

Mr. McIntyre is a hands-on geologist whose history of discovery has come from piecing together disparate data and leveraging the capacity of his exploration teams.  He has worked in 14 different countries and has a track record of training and mentoring local talent to the highest international standards of professional and technical work.

Dr. Colin Seaborn

OML Chief Metallurgist

Dr. Seaborn has broad metallurgical and business analysis experience in the mineral processing industry. This includes over 20 years with CRA (now Rio Tinto) in base metals, gold and coal covering both operations and project development as well as project evaluation for CRA Group Executives. Subsequently, he has assisted mineral exploration companies to set up initial metallurgical testing and project evaluation for base metals and gold projects in Australia and Namibia. He has organized metallurgical testing and evaluated onshore processing options for Neptune Minerals’ various underwater base metal and gold prospects in the southwest Pacific. He has also conducted organizational improvement projects in various sectors including manufacturing and waste management. 

Dr. Seaborn has drawn on this experience to:

• Develop and test metallurgical extraction processes for copper, zinc and gold-rich seabed massive sulphide (SMS) deposits in the Western Pacific
• Develop indicative financial models to assess the potential viability of extracting, transporting and on-shore processing of SMS deposits
• Develop processes for extracting metals from difficult deposits e.g., oxide molybdenum in weathered zones of two sulphide mineral deposits; extracting valuable metals from bauxite processing waste (red muds)

Dr. Seaborn has a Ph.D. in metallurgy from the University of NSW and an MSc in mineral economics from Macquarie University.

Mr. David Felix

OML Chief Geologist

Mr. Felix has most recently served as a geological consultant in ocean mining, where he has performed extensive research into the genesis, distribution, and environment of seafloor materials containing high amounts of rare earth metals. His work included the groundbreaking development of indicators for the likely location of rare earth-enriched sediment, obtaining samples from archived sediment cores taken in those locations, evaluating several methods for the analysis of rare earth metals in sediments, and arranging for sample analysis. As a result, Mr. Felix has made preliminary estimates of the rare earth sediment resource in several promising areas of the Pacific. In addition, he worked with engineers on a conceptual plan for the mining and processing of the sediment resource. 

Mr. Felix has performed extensive research on the cobalt resource in seafloor manganese nodules near the Cook Islands. These efforts included the evaluation of the quality of published “academic” nodule sample results to utilize the data for mineral resource estimation. He assisted in the preparation of a resource evaluation and an NI 43-101 report for several potentially mineable areas. Mr. Felix provides advice to the OM team for the selection of areas for dredging of nodules to provide material for metallurgical processing tests, and preliminary research (desktop studies) on environmental parameters in the areas with cobalt-enriched nodules to advise the engineering team for the design of the Mining and Transport system. 

His prior experience as a geological consultant to the mining industry included evaluation and sampling of marine and terrestrial placer gold deposits, development of placer sampling technology, and performing resource assessments using geostatistics. He has performed evaluations of manganese nodule resource/reserves for other clients as well and has performed mining feasibility studies of marine phosphorite, seafloor sulfides, offshore porphyry copper, and cobalt-rich manganese crusts.

Perhaps most importantly for OM’s Cook Islands nodule project, Mr. Felix was a key employee of the Kennecott Copper and Kennecott Nodule Consortium which operated in the Clarion Clipperton Zone from 1967 to 1981.  Mr. Felix served as Senior Geologist for Kennecott’s manganese nodule exploration program and as such was responsible for exploration cruise planning, sampling plans, sampling equipment design and development, data processing and management, seafloor photo analysis, bathymetric data collection and compilation, analytical laboratory management, and served as a point of contact with university and government research organizations. Mr. Felix worked with Kennecott engineers on seafloor nodule miner development. His work resulted in delineation and evaluation of nodule exploration claims made under US Public Law 96-283.  He led or participated in several nodule exploration cruises, and led the investigation of seafloor gold, copper, and phosphate rock deposits.  Mr. Felix has published articles on sediment analysis, shipboard nodule chemical analysis, nodule abundance estimate error, regional variation in nodule chemistry, freshwater iron-manganese crusts, and environmental sampling/contamination mitigation.

Mr. Felix holds a BS in Geology from Marietta College.  He completed graduate studies in Oceanography at the prestigious Scripps Institute of Oceanography with an emphasis on seafloor sampling and erosion processes.  He received his MS in Geology from the University of Southern California, with a research focus on nearshore sediment transport, coastal erosion, seafloor slope stability, sedimentary petrology, and marine phosphorite deposits.  Mr. Felix is a licensed California Professional Geologist (License 5184).  Mr. Felix served 20 years as an Environmental Health Specialist in San Diego’s Land and Water Quality Division where he provided regulatory oversight of contaminated property investigation and cleanup. He has performed extensive research on groundwater contamination, sampling techniques, risk assessment, and cleanup technology effectiveness.

Mr. Eric Klier

Downstream Products Development

Mr. Klier’s experience performing and leading research and development programs and developing next-generation materials for commercial and government use and in identifying and resolving issues relating to advanced materials and materials systems and advanced materials processing technologies makes him a key member of OM’s technical team focused on nodule process development to provide critical material supply chain solutions.  He is a key advisor in OM”s ongoing metallurgical process selection and verification, knowledgeable in pilot plant production and scale-up functions, along with process optimization for commercialization.  

Mr. Klier has spent the last 15 years as a researcher and team leader at the Army Research Laboratory located at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, USA. As team leader for the Strategic Alloys and Applications Team, he provided leadership on a range of projects related to addressing strategic critical materials supply chain challenges for the US military.  As a principal investigator, Mr. Klier led the development and demonstration of new cutting-edge materials and processes for the fabrication of complex multi-component armor systems with higher performance and lower costs. He is a recognized rare earth elements and strategic materials subject matter expert within the ARL and broader government settings. 

As a materials engineer, Mr. Klier developed and scaled up a powder metallurgy process for the production of bulk nano-grained (<100 nm avg. grain size at >99% theoretical density) tungsten (W). He has conducted materials processing R&D activities related to improved ordnance materials as well as the development of very lightweight materials for armor applications.

Prior to his time at ARL, Mr. Klier worked at a series of high-tech material companies in cutting-edge material and process development.  This experience ranged from prototyping through process and performance improvement, to cost reduction and scale-up. These companies include M Cubed Technologies, Inc., dmc2 Electronic Components Corporation, and Chesapeake Composites Corporation.  Throughout the 14+ years as part of this high-tech commercial industry, Mr. Klier demonstrated success after success in projects resulting in improved process performance and reduced production costs.  Chesapeake Composites Corporation was co-founded by Mr. Klier, who also served as Vice President.  During the 8 years at Chesapeake, from 1992 through 2000, he invented and patented materials and processes for Dispersion Strengthened Casting (DSC) metals, a class of very high-performance synthetic metal alloys.  In his role as VP, he was responsible for directing all technology-related aspects of business, including R&D, production, pilot plant operations, and scale-up.  He raised more than $1.6 million in private equity and SBIR funding from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.  Other areas of effort during this time included conducting R&D and manufacturing in areas such as ceramic processing, metal casting, liquid metal infiltration, extrusion, machining, and semi-solid forming. 

Prior to co-founding his company, Mr. Klier was a senior material engineer for Lanxide Corporation and LTV Missiles and Electronics Group.  His focus in these roles was primarily in R&D activities including materials development and prototyping and manufacturing process development.

Mr. Klier earned his S.M. in Materials Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1988 and his B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1986. He holds numerous patents and has published many papers in his professional field.

Mr. Douglas Maxwell

Process Engineer & Qualified Person

Mr. Maxwell is experienced in the preparation and review of process flow sheets, mass and flow balances for many processes and has conducted and managed test programs in the treatment of ores, wastes, and other media. He has conducted audits of plants for RCRA and CERCLA compliance. For early project development, he has executed feasibility studies for the treatment of ores, wastes, and other materials. Mr. Maxwell is currently the principal metallurgical engineer for Mountains to Abyss Mineral Engineering, a consulting engineering firm.

Mr. Maxwell is an expert advisor and member of Ocean Mineral’s process engineering team focused on developing a program of analysis and process testing of seabed nodules. He interfaces closely with Dr. Seaborn and with Mr. Klier as part of this integrated team.

From 2004 through 2014, Mr. Maxwell was a Lead Process Engineer and Project Manager on a range of projects at Lyntek Inc., a mining and metals engineering company with extensive expertise in designing and constructing pilot plants to assess the feasibility of beneficiation processes or solve acid rock or acid mine drainage problems. While at Lyntek, his projects included polymetallic flotation concentrators, concentrator expansion projects, heap leaching projects (gold, uranium), flotation projects (gold), a potash mining byproduct plant, rare earth mineral processing, and numerous others. Between 1982 and 2004, Mr. Maxwell worked for a number of well-known companies in the minerals field as a senior process engineer. He is recognized as a Qualified Person in his field. His extensive, practical commercial experience and expertise make him a critical contributor to the Ocean Minerals team.

Mr. Maxwell received his Master of Engineering in Metallurgy at the Colorado School of Mines in 1982 and his B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines in 1979. He is a registered member of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, a registered professional engineer in metallurgy by the State of Colorado, and active in the Extractive Metallurgy Chapter of Denver, Colorado.

Dr. Jack Lifton

Technology Metals Advisor

Dr. Lifton is a Founding Principal of Technology Metals Research, LLC. He is also a consultant, author, and lecturer on the market fundamentals of technology metals, the term that he coined to describe those strategic rare metals whose electronic properties make our technological society possible. These include the rare earths, lithium, and most rare metals.

Educated as a physical chemist, specializing in high-temperature metallurgy, Dr. Lifton was first a researcher before becoming both a marketing and manufacturing executive. Finally, he became a metal trader specializing in the field of technology metals and rare metals.

Today, after 50 years of industry involvement, he advises the US government, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) high tech industry, and the global institutional investment community, on the natural resource issues that impact either a proposed business model or a high-volume manufacturing plan for the mass market.

His work today is principally as a due-diligence consultant for institutional investors, looking into opportunities where rare and technology metals availability are a factor in determining the probability of commercial success of a metals-related venture.

Dr. Lifton is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.  

He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Mathematics from Wayne State University.  He also attended the University of Detroit School of Law.