# The Metals Company The Nasdaq-listed nodule-mining company that triggered the international seabed regime's two-year rule, then walked away from that regime to seek permits from a country that is not a party to it — and that, as of August 2026, has never sold a tonne of anything. ## The position Three ISA exploration contracts held through sponsored subsidiaries: **NORI**, sponsored by **Nauru** (2011, 74,830 km² in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone); **TOML**, sponsored by **Tonga** (2012); and **Marawa**, sponsored by **Kiribati**. Around 224,533 km² in total. In 2022 NORI and the offshore contractor Allseas ran the first integrated pilot nodule collection in the CCZ since the 1970s, lifting **over 3,000 tonnes** from 4,280 metres and tracking about 80 km of seafloor. It was a genuine engineering achievement, and it also produced the industry's most damaging scientific record. ## The pivot Formalised on **27 March 2025**: TMC would seek permits under the **US Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act of 1980** through a new US subsidiary, **bypassing the [[International Seabed Authority]] entirely**. Applications followed in April 2025. MiningWatch Canada headlined it "The Metals Company Goes Rogue." Executive Order 14285 of 24 April 2025 directed expedited review. NOAA's rule of **21 January 2026** consolidated what had been a sequential two-step process — exploration licence first, then commercial recovery permit — into a **single simultaneous application with a single environmental impact statement**, applying to polymetallic nodules only. TMC USA filed its first consolidated application on **22 January 2026**, expanding the commercial recovery area to about 65,000 km². NOAA found it in substantial compliance in March and **full compliance on 1 May 2026**, and certified an exploration licence application on 28 May. > [!warning] Nothing has been permitted, and nothing has been mined > "Compliance" and "certification" are procedural gateway findings, not grants. **As of 10 August 2026 NOAA has issued no commercial recovery permit and no commercial deep-sea mining has begun anywhere on earth.** TMC's own guidance is a permit in Q1 2027. The separate track of US offshore lease sales inside American jurisdiction has also slipped: the first American Samoa sale is now scheduled for **19 November 2026**, against an original August target, after more than 70,000 public comments opposing it and Guam legislating a ban in its own waters. ## The financials - Share price around **$4.44** and market cap about **$1.92 billion** in August 2026, on **no revenue**. - **2025 net loss around $320 million.** Q1 2026 net loss $20.6 million, liquidity about $164 million. - The stock rose **450.9% in 2025** on the US-permit pivot — a valuation built entirely on regulatory expectation. - Korea Zinc took an **$85.2 million** strategic position; Allseas agreed in May 2026 to fund a significant portion of pre-production costs, repayable after production. ## Gerard Barron Chairman and CEO since 2017. Before TMC he was an early investor in and director of **Nautilus Minerals**, the deep-sea venture that collapsed in 2019 after the Solwara 1 project in Papua New Guinea. **Barron exited profitably; PNG lost roughly $120 million.** It is the single most-cited fact in critical coverage of the company, and it belongs on the page. Greenpeace USA's July 2025 report found TMC spent **over $500,000 across two years** lobbying Congress and on the defence authorisation bill — and found **no evidence the US defence sector had actually sought deep-sea minerals**. Barron testified before the House Natural Resources Committee in January 2026. ## The science problem The strongest single piece of evidence against the industry came out of TMC's own contract area. A **Nature paper of 26 March 2025** revisited a 1979 test-mining site in the CCZ after **44 years**: the physical track marks were essentially intact, sessile megafauna were largely absent from the tracks, and overall megafaunal densities remained significantly reduced. Some recovery had occurred — sediment macrofauna densities were broadly similar to controls, and mobile deposit-feeders had recolonised. The conclusion is the one that matters for permitting: **impacts persist over at least decadal timeframes**, in an environment where recovery has now been measured rather than modelled. ## See also [[Deep-Sea Mining]] · [[International Seabed Authority]] · [[Minerals Diplomacy]] · [[Critical Minerals]] · [[Conflict Resources Atlas]]