- Amelia Kinahoi Siamomua brings Small Island Developing State perspective to TMC’s Board following its recent merger and listing on Nasdaq
- She brings more than 35 years’ of professional experience advancing sustainable development and women’s rights through the Commonwealth Secretariat, the United Nations system – UNDESA, UNIFEM, UNDP, and other international organisations including CARE USA, Asian Development Bank, and the Pacific Islands Forum and Pacific Community
- Kinahoi Siamomua’s appointment — together with the appointments of Sheila Khama and Gina Stryker — brings female representation on TMC’s Board to 38%
The Metals Company (NASDAQ: TMC) (the “Company” or “TMC”), an explorer of the world’s largest estimated undeveloped source of battery metals for EVs, today announced that Amelia Kinahoi Siamomua, a Tongan national, has joined its Board of Directors as an independent Director, underlining the Company’s commitment to strong governance as it works to complete an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment in relation to collecting deep-sea nodules in the CCZ and to contribute to the sustainable development of its Sponsoring States (Nauru, Tonga and Kiribati).
Ms. Kinahoi Siamomua will join the Board’s Sustainability and Innovation Committee, tasked with developing and overseeing The Metals Company’s policies, programs and performance in relation to ESG and sustainability matters such as climate change, environmental and community impacts, and stakeholder engagement. She has served as a senior advisor in the United Nations system (UNDESA, UNDP and UNIFEM) and other international development organizations providing policy advisory and technical assistance; and she led projects for developing states in the African, Asian, Caribbean, and Pacific regions. Most recently, Ms. Kinahoi Siamomua served as Head of Gender in the Economic, Youth and Sustainable Directorate of the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat, and in 2020 she was endorsed by the Government of Tonga to lead the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat as Secretary-General, the only female candidate for the role.
Gerard Barron, Chairman and CEO of TMC, said: “Amelia brings deep understanding and experience in the development issues facing our sponsoring states and their peers in the wider Pacific region. Small Island Developing States have contributed the least to climate change yet — as sea levels rise — they are among the first to feel the impacts, which call into question their very survival. Amelia has a unique perspective on how the responsible development of polymetallic nodules can help prepare local economies and people for life in a warming world.”
The Metals Company has exclusive access to three exploration contract areas in the CCZ sponsored by Nauru, Kiribati, and the Kingdom of Tonga, and granted by the International Seabed Authority. Through TMC’s local subsidiaries, community, social, training and capacity-building opportunities are directed to support local priorities.
TMC’s subsidiary NORI was granted an ISA Exploration Contract sponsored by the government of Nauru in 2011. In 2015 TMC secured commercial rights to a second exploration area in the CCZ through a contract with Marawa, a Kiribati-owned and sponsored entity that holds an ISA Exploration Contract. The third ISA Exploration Contract was secured by TMC through the acquisition of Tonga Offshore Mining Limited (TOML) last year, adding an additional inferred resource of 756 million wet tonnes of polymetallic nodules to its resource portfolio as well as over ten thousand preserved biological samples, 115,591 square km of bathymetric data and 3,000+ line-kms of seabed imagery to aid in both resource evaluation and environmental impact studies. TOML and the Kingdom of Tonga updated their Sponsorship Agreement on September 23, 2021, reaffirming their joint commitment to responsibly developing the TOML project and increasing the direct benefits provided to Tonga.