TMC The Metals Company Inc. (NASDAQ:TMC) shares are trading higher Friday after the company announced that NOAA determined that The Metals Company USA’s consolidated application for an exploration license and commercial recovery permit is in full compliance.
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Regulatory Milestone
The company said the determination marks a key milestone in the regulatory approval process for TMC USA, moving the application into the certification stage of review.
Following certification, the application will be posted to the Federal Register, after which a draft Environmental Impact Statement will be published for public comment. After the comment period, the Environmental Impact Statement will be finalized and NOAA will make a final determination on whether to issue the license and permit.
TMC USA expects the process to conclude before the end of the first quarter of 2027.
The company noted that the full compliance determination follows an earlier finding of substantial compliance in March and represents another step in a series of expected regulatory milestones.
Application Details
TMC USA's consolidated application, submitted earlier this year, covers a combined exploration and commercial recovery area of approximately 65,000 square kilometers in the Clarion Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean. This represents an increase from the roughly 25,000 square kilometers included in the initial application filed in April 2025.
The application includes an estimated resource of 619 million tonnes of wet nodules, with potential exploration upside of an additional 200 million tonnes.
The company said the submission is the first of its kind under NOAA's updated regulatory framework, which allows applicants to combine exploration and commercial recovery permits into a single process using exploration-phase data.
CEO Gerard Barron said the determination brings the company closer to commercial operations and reflects years of scientific, environmental and engineering work supporting the project.
The Metals Company Shares Climb
TMC Price Action: At the time of publication, TMC The Metals Company shares are trading 2.29% higher at $5.36, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
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