US streamlines permitting for deep-sea miners

The Trump administration has adopted new rules slashing the permitting process for deep-sea mining in half.

Effective immediately, the two-step process of getting an exploration license and then a commercial recovery permit is consolidated into a single, shorter review period, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Wednesday.

Shares in The Metals Co. (Nasdaq: TMC) shot up 13% to close at $8.71 apiece on Wednesday in Toronto, valuing the company at $3.38 billion.

TMC, the new frontier’s leading explorer, started the process to obtain its licenses and permits last year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at bolstering the deep-sea mining industry. The rule changes were floated last July. 

“This new rule represents a meaningful modernization of the U.S. regulatory framework for deep seabed nodule collection and acknowledges the significant advances the industry has made since the U.S. regime was first established,” Gerard Baron, CEO of The Metals Co., said in a release.

‘America First’

“Deep seabed mining is key to unlocking a domestic source of critical minerals for the United States,” NOAA administrator Neil Jacobs said in a release on Wednesday.

“This consolidation modernizes the law and supports the America First agenda by enabling U.S. companies to access these resources more quickly, strengthening our nation’s economic resilience and advancing the discovery and use of critical seafloor minerals.”

TMC’s exploration licence applications cover a combined 199,895 sq. km, while the commercial recovery permit covers 25,160 sq. km within the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a resource-rich swath of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico.

Nodules

Parts of the Pacific Ocean and elsewhere are believed to contain large amounts of potato-shaped rocks known as polymetallic nodules. More than 1 billion tonnes of those nodules are estimated to be in U.S. waters and filled with manganese, nickel, copper and other critical minerals, according to an administration official.

As such, companies have been lining up to mine parts of the Pacific, including areas beyond U.S. territory. Any country can allow deep-sea mining in its own territorial waters — roughly up to 200 nautical miles from shore.

In addition to TMC, California-based Impossible Metals is also looking to mine the seabed. Last year, it asked U.S. federal officials to launch a commercial auction for access to deposits off the coast of American Samoa. Internationally, the company also received backing from Bahrain for mine its waters.