The determination of full compliance follows the determination of substantial compliance in March and represents another key step in a steady, transparent cadence of expected regulatory milestones:
- The consolidated application now moves into the certification stage of the review process and will be posted to the Federal Register
- Following certification, a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for TMC USA’s project will be published for public comment
- Following the public comment period, the EIS will be finalized and NOAA will make a final determination on whether to issue the license and permit
- TMC USA expects the process will conclude before the end of Q1 2027
Earlier this year, TMC USA 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 km2 exploration and commercial recovery area in the CCZ, compared to a commercial recovery area of ~25,000 km2 in TMC USA’s initial commercial recovery permit application from April 2025.
Gerard Barron, Chairman and CEO of The Metals Company, said: “This determination marks an important step forward in NOAA’s transparent, rules-based process, and brings us ever closer to providing the US with a new, abundant, and lower-impact source of critical metals. It reflects the sheer scale of scientific, environmental, and engineering effort and expertise that have been brought to bear on this project over the last 15 years, which provides us with sufficient information to move efficiently and responsibly into commercial operations under NOAA’s oversight.”
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.
TMC USA’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.
