Dr. Charles Morgan

Founder & Exploration Geologist

Dr. Morgan, an oceanographer and geologist, is the Principal Scientist at Moana Hohonu Consulting LLC., an Hawaii based company specializing in environmental and regulatory permitting of offshore projects.
 
Dr. Morgan has been at the forefront of the seafloor minerals industry for 50 years. He is a leading authority on polymetallic nodules in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) and was responsible for managing and completing the Geological Model for the CCZ for the International Seabed Authority (ISA Technical Report #6).
 
In the 1970’s he was Senior Research Scientist for Lockheed Advanced Marine Systems, as part of the Ocean Minerals Company (“OMCO”) polymetallic nodule mining consortium, where he was responsible for Resource Assessment and Environmental Compliance. After many years of research and development, costing $100 million (in 1979 dollars), OMCO successfully conducted a trial harvesting operation for polymetallic nodules in the CCZ. This was achieved using a remotely controlled, fully manoeuvrable, self-propelled harvester. 
 
Since that time Dr. Morgan has had extensive involvement with the seafloor minerals industry, including as Chairman of the Underwater Mining Institute. He was also the only U.S. Representative on the Legal & Technical Commission of the International Seabed Authority (1997 –2001).  He is registered as a Competent Person for seabed mineral resource assessment by the Society for Mining and Metallurgical Exploration (SME, Registration #4041112).
 
He has written over 20 publications on deep seabed mining and has managed and participated in a large number of deep-sea mineral projects.