NOAA Advances The Metals Company’s Deep-Sea Mining Permit…

Event summary

NOAA published The Metals Company’s consolidated application for an exploration license and commercial recovery permit in the Federal Register on August 19, 2026.
The application covers a 65,000 km² area with an estimated 619 million tonnes of wet nodules and potential upside of 200 million tonnes.
NOAA’s updated regulatory framework allows for a more efficient permitting timeline by combining exploration and commercial recovery applications.
The application follows NOAA’s certification of full compliance on April 28, 2026, and will proceed through environmental review and public comment.
The Metals Company also has an application for the USA-B area, covering 122,000 km² with an estimated 1.02 billion tonnes of nodules.

The big picture

The Metals Company’s application marks a significant step in the U.S. regulatory framework for deep-sea mining, which aims to provide a more efficient path to commercial production of critical minerals. The scale of the proposed project, with an estimated 619 million tonnes of nodules in the USA-A area alone, underscores the strategic importance of securing domestic sources of nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese for energy, defense, and manufacturing sectors. The outcome of this permitting process will set a precedent for future deep-sea mining ventures and could influence global mineral supply chains.

What we're watching

Regulatory Efficiency: Whether NOAA’s consolidated process will indeed streamline permitting timelines for deep-sea mining projects.
Environmental Review: The pace at which NOAA conducts the environmental review and drafts an Environmental Impact Statement for public comment.
Commercial Viability: How the Terms, Conditions, and Restrictions imposed by NOAA will affect the commercial viability of The Metals Company’s project.