Deep-sea mining company The Metals Company (TMC) has recently become a focal point in the market, with its stock price achieving a staggering increase of over 500% within the year, ranking it among the best-performing mining stocks of the year. This dramatic performance is closely linked to President Trump’s latest policy moves, which may bring significant potential benefits to the company.
The core business of The Metals Company is deep-sea mining, focusing on extracting polymetallic nodules rich in cobalt, copper, nickel, and manganese from the seabed. The company’s long-term plan is to process these nodules into battery-grade metals for use in electric vehicle batteries, power generation, transmission, and other fields, emphasizing that the batteries produced from their products are recyclable. Despite its ambitious business model, it is important to note that TMC currently generates no revenue and its operations remain at the exploration stage.
The main obstacle facing the company is regulatory approval. TMC currently holds no commercial mining contracts from the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and lacks the environmental and other key permits required to build a nodule processing plant. For years, the ISA has been slow to finalize deep-sea mining regulations, leaving exploration companies like TMC in a difficult position. However, a turning point seems to have emerged with changes in the U.S. political landscape. In April 2025, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at accelerating the approval process for deep-sea mining in domestic and international waters under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act (DSHMRA). This policy provides TMC with a potential path to bypass the ISA deadlock, and its U.S. subsidiary has already submitted applications for two exploration licenses and one commercial mining license based on this.
If TMC successfully obtains the permits, it would undoubtedly be a major breakthrough. However, this path is fraught with uncertainty. The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has already raised questions about whether Trump’s executive order applies to international waters under its jurisdiction. More importantly, deep-sea mining itself is a highly speculative industry with significant technical challenges and risks. Even if TMC ultimately overcomes all regulatory and technical obstacles, commercializing its operations would still require billions of dollars in investment. Considering the immense challenges the company faces and its current financial situation, TMC’s market valuation of $3.6 billion appears to carry substantial risks.
