Are you looking beyond Texas? Yep, we've done a big sweep. For us, logistics and being able to get in there with a large Panamax or Handymax [cargo ship] is important. And so that's why Texas is attractive. But the West Coast, California has some challenges, but there's one or two economic zones that could be easier for permitting. Washington state is very interesting. We will only locate it where we don't have to replicate that infrastructure, where we don't have to build a deepwater port or don't have to build a supply of renewable power. It's a prerequisite, when we've made that decision. Where would you sell your minerals, in addition to Japan and the U.S.? India is one option, of course. And so there's a lot of existing infrastructure in Asia, but especially China. So that makes it challenging for us. There's no reason why we couldn't deal with China. But we really liked the idea of being the alternative to China. I think that can be something we can build our brand around. Are you hoping to benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act? Yeah. One hundred percent. We have a communication challenge there. I've seen [Sen. Joe] Manchin [D-W.Va.], who I thought did a damn good job of getting it in place in the first instance, and the car companies saying, "Where are we going to get the metals from?" This can solve that. Have you applied for support from the U.S. government? We have some applications in preparation at the moment with both the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy. Nothing to report on it just yet. What do you make of the opposition to deep-sea mining? Would I love it if everyone was celebrating this moving forward and skipping down the path saying, 'Hey, we're going to save our most biodiverse carbon sinks on Earth by leaving the rainforests in place and not pushing out Indigenous communities.' 'But instead, we're going to put up as much opposition and try and distract people and so on.' And the press has not been kind on this topic. They want to talk about the Greenpeace position. I just don't get it. Do you have any hope that the U.S. will ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, and how important is it that the U.S. does so? I’ve given up hoping that. It might be important to the U.S., but it’s not important to me. Is it easier to get the U.S. to ratify the Law of the Sea than having to go through regulatory reform on Capitol Hill to speed up domestic mining? No one wants a mine in their backyard. That’s become very clear. Whether it’s Twin Metals or Pebble or Resolution Copper, no one wants it, and I can’t blame them. Mining is not a very cool thing. I don’t think America needs to ratify the Law of the Sea. Is America missing out? Yes. But can America still benefit from companies like us processing these metals on U.S. soil? Yes. Why would we do that? Because we get incentives to locate and build one place instead of another place. Environmental groups have noted that your company in filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission in the fall of 2022 revealed a federal investigation was underway. Is that still ongoing? As you can see in our filings, we have voluntarily complied with that investigation. Nothing further to share. The action is of a sort fairly common for companies emerging from SPAC status.
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