Ocean mining hopeful TMC The Metals Company says US regulators have determined that its consolidated deep-seabed mining application is in “substantial compliance”.

The determination was made by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, covering an application submitted by the company’s subsidiary, TMC USA.

The application seeks both an exploration licence and a commercial recovery permit for polymetallic nodules in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in international waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Filed earlier this year under NOAA’s updated consolidated application framework, the proposal covers an area of about 65 000 km² for exploration and potential commercial recovery, compared with 25 000 km² outlined in TMC USA’s initial commercial recovery permit application submitted in April 2025.

The company estimates the expanded area hosts a resource of about 619-million tonnes of wet nodules, with additional exploration upside of around 200-million tonnes.

NOAA’s consolidated permitting process allows companies to incorporate exploration-phase environmental, geological and engineering data directly into commercial recovery reviews, which regulators say can streamline the overall approval timeline.

Public comment periods for TMC USA’s exploration licence applications have already been completed.

TMC chairman and CEO Gerard Barron said the determination reflected years of work by the company and its partners.

“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 US. We welcome the streamlined consolidated review process and look forward to the next stages.”

The company said its application draws on more than a decade of environmental baseline studies, scientific research and offshore engineering work conducted in the CCZ.

The region is known to host large deposits of polymetallic nodules containing metals such as nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese.