Gerard Barron

Now they're deindustrialization because of energy policy and other things.

And there is an industry body there that represents every industry association who has pleaded with the government to support ocean metals like they used to because America can't get reliable supply.

Sorry, Germany can't get reliable supply.

Yet their government were appeasing the green side of things, saying, oh, we should slow down and just wait.

Now, this all played into China's hands, because we are the most ambitious player in the industry.

We were driving the industry forward.

China, despite the fact that they want to dominate this, because President Xi made a public statement saying, we want to dominate deep ocean, deep earth, and deep space.

Part of their plan.

But they're running a little bit behind us, five to seven years.

It's good to hear.

And it was going pretty well for them because the NGOs were in there influencing the countries who were influencing the International Seabed Authority adopting the final rules.

And without those final rules, it's very hard for me to get started.

And so this is playing into, this is when I mentioned it was playing into China's playbook.

This is how they were doing it.

China sat back going, oh, it's going to take a bit longer.

Is it?

No problem.

Just let it happen.

But for me, I depend on shareholder support.

And unfortunately, shareholders would not have been willing to give me another five years to sit around and see what happens.