The Metals Company Inc. (Nasdaq: TMC) has announced that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has determined that its consolidated deep‑seabed mining application, submitted by subsidiary The Metals Company USA LLC (TMC USA), is in substantial compliance with the requirements of the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act (DSHMRA). The finding marks a key milestone in the U.S. regulatory pathway for exploration and commercial recovery of polymetallic nodules in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ).
Earlier this year, TMC USA lodged the first consolidated application under NOAA’s updated regulatory framework, which allows applicants to submit a combined exploration licence and commercial recovery permit using exploration‑phase environmental, geological and engineering data. The application covers approximately 65,000km² of seabed in the CCZ, compared to ~25,000km² under its initial April 2025 commercial recovery submission. The area is estimated to contain 619Mt of wet nodules, with an additional 200Mt of potential exploration upside.
NOAA’s determination enables the application to advance to the next stages of review. Public comment periods for TMC USA’s associated exploration‑licence applications (TMC USA A and TMC USA B) have now been completed.
Gerard Barron, chairman and CEO of The Metals Company, commented, “NOAA’s determination reflects the depth of work our team and partners have put into understanding this resource and how it can be responsibly developed. After more than a decade of environmental research, successful offshore trials and commercial‑scale metallurgical processing, we believe polymetallic nodules can provide a new and lower‑impact source of critical metals for the U.S. We welcome the streamlined consolidated review process and look forward to the next stages.”
TMC USA’s application draws on more than 10 years of environmental baseline studies, scientific research and offshore engineering, representing one of the most comprehensive datasets ever assembled on polymetallic nodules and their surrounding ecosystems.
NOAA has maintained an active deep‑seabed licensing programme since the 1980s and has played a central role in advancing scientific understanding of nodule‑collection impacts, including environmental impact studies, monitoring of early collection trials, and the publication of a programmatic environmental impact statement for the CCZ.
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