DVI was a subsidiary of the US oil company Tenneco that led Ocean Mining Associates (OMA), a consortium for deep-sea mining. Another member of OMA was Union Minière (UM), a Belgian company famous for mining in (colonial) Congo. OMA succeeded in digging up polymetallic nodules from its ‘deposit’ for the first time in 1978. A few years later, the world crisis slowed down the metals market. UM stepped back, but OMA carried on.

From: Undo Enclosures