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The NOC has led an expedition on the RRS James Cook that found enough of the scarce element Tellurium present in the crust of a submerged volcano that, if it were all to be used in the production of solar PV panels, could provide 2/3rds of the UK’s annual electricity supply. In addition, the NOC also led an international study demonstrating deep-sea nodule mining will cause long-lasting damage to deep-sea life, lasting at least for decades.

Meanwhile, would someone explain why the second that is before a comma, and why it leading a clause that start with "if".

If you would not mind to help, that would be much appreciated!

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  • In both cases (and this sentence!), the purpose of "that" is to start a new clause that uses a preceding object (expedition, volcano, clause) as a subject. The word "that" simply replaces full repetition of the "object become subject", in such a way that we normally parse the text as one complex sentence rather than two simple ones. In your case, the "unconnected" version could start: The NOC has led an expedition on the RRS James Cook. The expedition found enough of the scarce element Tellurium... Note that sentence #2 could start with That or This expedition
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Mar 26 at 11:23
  • ...personally, I think your example overuses "that", creating an unnecessarily long and structurally complex utterance that's awkward to parse. Don't copy that style!
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Mar 26 at 11:25
  • A rewrite: The NOC has led an expedition that found the scarce element Tellurium present in the crust of a submerged volcano -- enough to provide two-thirds of the UK’s annual electricity supply [for one year] if all of it were used in the production of solar panels. However, the NOC also led an international study demonstrating that deep-sea nodule mining would damage deep-sea life for decades and possibly longer.
    – TimR
    Commented Mar 26 at 12:09
  • What do you think their functions are? What research have you done?
    – BillJ
    Commented Mar 26 at 13:18

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These are markers of relative clauses. The first is (by context) modifying the noun "expedition". It wouldn't make sense for it to modify "RMS James Cook".

The second has a conditional "if" clause as a subordinate element in the relative clause. If this were placed at the end, no comma would be needed:

enough ... that could provide 2/3rds of the UK’s annual electricity supply if it were all to be used in the production of solar PV panels.

But as the "if" clause has been brought to the front (for reasons of focus and rhetorical structure) it needs to be set off with commas. You see the same commas in other "if" clauses "I'll stay home if it rains" but "If it rains, I'll stay home" But in this example there is no introductory marker, so only a single comma is needed. In the relative clause, the subordinator "that" needs to be separated from the introductory "if". Parenthesis or dashes could also be used in place of commas, but would be rather heavy punctuation.

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