There is no set criterion for who makes a great podcast guest. Or, if there is, it varies dramatically over the sprawling landscape of Podcastlandia. Personally, I look for people that I’d like to share a meal with. People who have lived big, adventurous, and consequential lives. People who have assumed great risk, worked hard, endured their own share of setbacks, but ultimately made the world a more civilized place without losing their sense of humor. Having shared several meals with today’s guest, I can assure you that he checks all the boxes, and I’m excited for you to meet him.
Tom Albanese has spent over 30 years in the mining industry, which is, with the possible exception of agriculture, the most important industry in the world. He has run, and continues to run, some of the biggest mining companies on the planet, and worked in over a hundred countries. His latest endeavor – the one that brought us together – involves the pursuit of polymetallic nodules. These are small, spherical deposits of critical minerals that have been laying on the seafloor for many millions of years. Some are as small as a milk dud. Others, the size of a softball. The ones in the attached video are golf ball sized. In fact, imagine a massive driving range covered with billions of black golf balls. That’s what much of the seafloor looks like 20,000 feet below the surface – thousands of square miles blanketed with round rocks, all packed with critical metals. They form like pearls over millions of years, and cover much of the abyssal plane. And they are suddenly, very, very important.
Along with myriad rare earths, these polymetallic nodules consist of nickel, copper, cobalt, and manganese – all of which are critical to the $10 trillion infrastructure that America is now committed to building. These are the same critical minerals we’ve been mining in the rainforests for decades, except here, they’re not underground, they’re underwater. They don’t need to be mined, per se, they need to picked up and processed. Obviously, that’s more complex than it sounds, but it’s doable, and the United States is now fully committed to doing it. We need these metals, and we need them quickly. Tom Albanese is in charge of the only American company poised to get them.
Our whole conversation is here, and it’s fascinating. https://bit.ly/TWIHI484TomAlbanese