en.Wedoany.com Reported - Seabed critical minerals explorer The Metals Company (Nasdaq: TMC) announced on Thursday that the USA B exploration license application submitted by its U.S. subsidiary, TMC USA, has received formal certification from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The USA B application area covers approximately 122,000 square kilometers of seabed. According to the summary of the initial assessment technical report released by TMC in August 2025, the area is estimated to contain 1.02 billion tonnes of polymetallic nodules. Concurrently, TMC USA is also advancing a combined application for an exploration license and commercial recovery permit for the USA A area, which was submitted to NOAA in January and deemed fully compliant on April 28.

Last month, the company submitted nearly a decade of deep-sea exploration data to the DeepData database. Managed by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), this database stores open data from contractors. The data covers exploration activities conducted by TMC subsidiaries from 2013 to 2022, including a range of biological and geochemical samples collected from the eastern Pacific Ocean's Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ, located between Mexico and Hawaii).

TMC CEO Gerard Barron stated in a press release that the certification of the USA B exploration license application marks another significant milestone in NOAA's transparent, rules-based process. The company looks forward to the preparation and publication of the Environmental Impact Statement, emphasizing that exploration is a crucial step in unlocking the transformative potential of America's untapped nodule resources.

NOAA is expected to soon issue a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), followed by the preparation and release of a draft EIS, along with draft Terms, Conditions, and Restrictions (TCRs) for the exploration activities TMC USA proposes to conduct in the USA B area, for public comment. Following the public comment period, the EIS will be finalized, and NOAA will make a final decision on the issuance of the license and its associated TCRs.

TMC's bid to become the first company permitted to develop deep-sea minerals has faced ongoing controversy. Environmental groups have called for a ban on all related activities, warning that industrial seabed operations could lead to irreversible biodiversity loss. Earlier this year, TMC began publicly sharing key findings from its environmental impact assessments through two new video series, focusing on how its datasets address environmental concerns and how innovation is reducing its environmental footprint.

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