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Deep Sea Minerals ($SEAS | $DSEAF) CEO on the Opportunity in Seabed Critical Minerals

Investor TV Jul 13, 2026

Summary

Deep Sea Minerals plans to harvest polymetallic nodules, seafloor rocks bearing nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese, in the CCZ and Cook Islands.

A 1980 US law, revived by a 2025 executive order, gives NOAA a commercial licensing path in international waters outside the ISA.

At about a $56 million market cap, the CEO positions the company far below multi-billion-dollar seabed peers TMC and the Odyssey Marine merger.

Hosts see gold support at $3,500-$3,850 and silver at $50-$55, with the HUI (gold miners index) down 37% creating buying setups.

Near-term catalysts include a NASDAQ uplisting, a Cook Islands license submission, NOAA full compliance, a $50 million shelf, and the Impossible Metals partnership.

Key points on Agnico Eagle Mines

  • Don Durrett says Agnico Eagle now prints as a four-bagger after the roughly 37% HUI correction, grouping it with Newmont among the 'best of the best' majors.
  • He revisits a price target of about $850 for AEM, which he notes implied roughly $7,000 gold.

Key points on Coeur Mining

  • Don Durrett holds up Coeur as evidence of how deep the correction runs, saying it trades an 'insane' distance below its 200-day moving average given the quality of the company.

Key points on Newmont

  • Don Durrett says Newmont now prints as a four-bagger following the roughly 37% HUI correction, alongside Agnico Eagle among the quality major gold producers.

Don Durrett's takeaways

  • Top takeaway He expects the lows are not yet in for gold and silver, predicting a further leg down sometime in 2026 as he sees the S&P 500, near 7,500 and an all-time high, breaking down below 7,000 when the AI trade fails and the economy tips into recession.
  • He sees gold support between $3,500 and $3,850, putting roughly 85% odds on not breaking below $3,800, and silver support at $50-55, framing the current dip as a buying opportunity.
  • His core argument: with majors printing as four-baggers after the 37% HUI correction, mid-tiers should average over five-baggers and quality developers around ten-baggers, so investors should buy quality dips rather than chase drill stories.
  • On Deep Sea Minerals he stays cautious, calling it high risk until the harvesting technology is proven, but argues that if either billion-dollar peer succeeds, the company could do extremely well by riding their coattails with its licenses already in place.
  • He reports that US government officials he has spoken with recently, including three on Zoom calls last month, get the memo on critical minerals and are looking for ways to compete with China on metals supply.

James Deckelman's takeaways

  • Top takeaway His thesis is that the sector reached an inflection point in the last 18 months: the April 2025 Trump executive order revived the 1980 Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act pathway, giving international-water projects a US regulatory route to commercial recovery that the ISA framework never provided.
  • He argues the harvesting technology is already proven at pilot scale, with TMC and Allseas having recovered several thousand tons of nodules and processed 2,000 metric tons in Japan, so the remaining step is upscaling to steady-state production.
  • He contends polymetallic nodules carry less resource risk than offshore oil and gas because they sit visible on the seafloor, requiring no remote definition or wellbores, and much equipment can transfer from decades of deepwater oil-and-gas operations.
  • He expects robotic harvesting of the kind Impossible Metals is developing to achieve a lower cost per ton than track-based riser systems, while conceding he did not have a cost-per-ton figure at hand.
  • He is candid that the industry remains nascent, with capital intensity comparable to oil and gas, real uncertainties and risks, and project economics that will only be defined as the sector matures.

John Fenwick's takeaways

  • Top takeaway He discloses on air that he bought Deep Sea Minerals stock after meeting CEO James Deckelman at his Fort Lauderdale conference, saying he liked how clearly the CEO articulates a non-mainstream story.
  • He frames Deep Sea Minerals as a catch-up trade, contrasting its roughly $57M market cap with TMC's ~$1.75B and the ~$1B AOMC-Odyssey merger while noting all three pursue the same CCZ and Cook Islands jurisdictions.