TMC Pushes For 'The Fastest Pathway To Commercial Production' Despite Environmental Risks

The Metals Company TMC, a deep-sea mining exploration company, has announced a pre-application consultation with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and has engaged with White House officials.

If the Trump administration approves a mining license, it could disrupt long-standing international agreements, including the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which regulates deep-sea mining under the International Seabed Authority (ISA).

“This would be a very serious challenge to multilateralism and would threaten a free-for-all which would go far beyond deep-sea mining and have implications for freedom of navigation, maritime boundaries and fisheries management,” Duncan Currie, legal advisor to the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, said, according to Bloomberg.

TMC holds two ISA exploration licenses sponsored by the Pacific island nation of Nauru, which allow it to prospect for cobalt, nickel, and other metals in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. However, commercial mining cannot begin until the ISA finalizes regulations—a process that has stalled for over a decade.

Firm’s CEO Gerard Barron said the company is exploring “the fastest pathway to commercial production” on a conference call during which the company reported an $81.9 million loss for 2024. Critics argue that U.S. mining approval in ISA-controlled waters would violate international law and set a dangerous precedent.

The ISA, which regulates 54% of the global seabed, has taken a pro-environmentalist stance after electing Brazilian oceanographer Leticia Carvalho as its secretary-general. Meanwhile, 32 member states have called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining until ecological risks are better understood. ISA leadership is currently holding the first part of its 29th session council in Kingston, Jamaica, debating regulations governing the commercial exploitation of underwater mineral resources.

Greenpeace and other organizations have ramped up calls for a ban, warning that the ISA's decision-making process remains susceptible to pressure from mining companies. Meanwhile, TMC has indicated that it plans to submit its first official application in June, regardless of whether the regulations are finalized.

ISA's session coincides with the release of the latest study on the topic, published in Nature magazine. In a paper titled "Long-term impact and biological recovery in deep-sea mining track," British researchers found that a test mining operation conducted over 40 years ago in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone left lasting damage, with many species still not recovering. Results revealed that sediment disturbances persisted for decades, affecting larger organisms while only some smaller, mobile species showed signs of recolonization.

Read Next:

• Red-Hot Copper: ETFs Soar On Tariff Speculation, Supply Squeeze

Photo by Sergey Novikov/Shutterstock