Gerard Barron

I would have had to pivot the business into something else, which I was preparing to do.

because I did not like what I was seeing.

What would you have pivoted into?

Well, we were running the ruler over a number of other assets, land-based opportunities.

My board didn't like it particularly, but we would have done what we had to survive because we would have just kept the licenses and kept them rolling on.

I would have had to streak the business.

The team that we've had together over the last many years would have had to go.

But when things get so bad, they've got to self-correct.

It's like the rubber band.

It was just pulling and pulling and pulling.

And we just knew it would break.

Question of when.

And luckily, it broke in the form of President Trump being elected.

And it had gone so far crazy.

So we knew there was a pathway, because America put the rules and regulations in place in 1980 that the International Seabed Authority still can't agree.

And you can understand why they can't agree.

There's 169 countries trying to agree something, even though they have a smaller council, 36-member council.

So getting agreement when the NGOs are there chipping away, trying to slow progress or stop the industry, that's their plan.

And we knew what the strategy of the NGO, the activist was.

Their strategy was to bleed the metals company dry.