NOAA has advanced the regulatory review for TMC the metals company Inc. subsidiary, The Metals Company USA LLC, by publishing a Notice of Intent in the Federal Register to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the USA-B exploration license application.

The publication follows NOAA's certification of the USA-B application on May 28, 2026. The application area covers approximately 122,000 square kilometres of seafloor in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean and hosts an estimated 1.02 billion tonnes of polymetallic nodules, featuring high grades of nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, and meaningful quantities of rare earth elements.

Under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, the environmental review process will see NOAA publish a draft Environmental Impact Statement and draft Terms, Conditions and Restrictions for public comment. Following the public comment period, the agency will consider feedback, finalise the statement, and make a final determination on issuing the exploration license.

Alongside the USA-B process, TMC USA is advancing a consolidated application for an exploration license and commercial recovery permit for the USA-A area, which NOAA determined to be fully compliant on April 28, 2026.

“We welcome the opportunity to participate in a rigorous Environmental Impact Statement process that invites public input and builds on more than a decade of our own environmental research and engineering, alongside 50 years of environmental research and a dozen other commercial and academic disturbance tests in the CCZ.”

— Gerard Barron, CEO and Chairman of The Metals Company

Operationally, TMC expects system commissioning for its first commercial nodule collection system with Allseas to begin in the fourth quarter of 2027.

Read the full announcement: NOAA Publishes Notice of Intent in the Federal Register to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for TMC USA’s USA-B Exploration License Application