NOAA Determines The Metals Company Deep-Seabed Mining Application is in Substantial Compliance
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The Metals Company (TMC) said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has determined that the consolidated application submitted for an exploration license and commercial recovery permit under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act (DSHMRA) is in substantial compliance with the requirements of the Act and its implementing regulations.
“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.,” said Gerard Barron, chairman and CEO of TMC.
“We welcome the streamlined consolidated review process and look forward to the next stages,” added Barron.
Earlier this year, TMC submitted a consolidated application for an exploration license and a commercial recovery permit for polymetallic nodules in international waters of the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the Pacific Ocean.
The application was filed under NOAA’s new consolidated application and review process and represents the first submission of its kind. It covers a ~65,000 km exploration and commercial recovery area in the CCZ. Pursuant to DSHMRA and its implementing regulations, NOAA has determined that TMC’s consolidated application is in substantial compliance with the requirements of the U.S. regulations.
The consolidated application process provides a more efficient regulatory timeline by allowing exploration-phase environmental, geological and engineering data to be incorporated directly into the commercial recovery review process. Meanwhile, TMC’s exploration license applications are moving along as expected with public comment periods now completed.
TMC’s application is informed by more than a decade of environmental baseline studies, scientific research, and offshore engineering conducted by the company and its partners, building one of the most comprehensive datasets ever assembled on polymetallic nodules and their surrounding ecosystems.
NOAA has played a central role in advancing scientific understanding of deep seabed mining impacts since the 1970s, including conducting environmental research cruises in the Clarion Clipperton Zone, monitoring early nodule collection trials and publishing a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement covering the area that included the CCZ in 1981. The agency issued implementing regulations under DSHMRA for exploration licenses in 1981 and commercial recovery permits in 1989 and has maintained an active licensing program since that time.
The Metals Company is a developer of lower-impact critical metals from seafloor polymetallic nodules, on a dual mission: supply metals for energy, defense, manufacturing, and infrastructure with net positive impacts compared to conventional production routes; and trace, recover, and recycle the metals they supply to help create a metal commons that can be used in perpetuity. The company has conducted more than a decade of research into the environmental and social impacts of offshore nodule collection and onshore processing.
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