The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), part of the US Department of Commerce, announced regulation revisions for exploration licences and commercial recovery permit applications, part of the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act (DSHMRA), an effort to streamline and fast-track deep seabed permitting.
These revisions, announced on 21 January 2026, establish a consolidated exploration license and commercial recovery permit application process. Environmental, geological, and engineering data collected during exploration can feed directly into commercial recovery permit applications.
NOAA administrator Neil Jacobs says that the new regulations “modernises the law and supports the America First agenda by enabling US companies to access these resources more quickly, strengthening our nation’s economic resilience and advancing the discovery and use of critical seafloor minerals”.
The Metals Company (NASDAQ:TMC), founded in 2011, is a deep sea exploration company, exploring battery-grade polymetallic nodules on the seafloor of the Clarion Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean.
TMC welcomes the updated regulatory process and says that they intend to submit a consolidated application, pursuant to NOAA’s updated regulations.
TMC Chairman Gerard Barron says “this new rule represents a meaningful modernisation of the US regulatory framework for deep seabed nodule collection and acknowledges the significant advances the industry has made since the US regime was first established”.
“The updated regulations align well with TMC USA’s long-term strategy and support a thoughtful transition from exploration to commercial production,” Barron says.
NOAA provided explanation for the revised regulation in The Federal Register, noting that the agency has seen significant improvement in the technological capability for deep seabed mining over the past few decades and that the industry has obtained a substantial amount of information from exploration, therefore demonstrating a readiness for commercial recovery.
NOAA regulatory authority covers seabed mining within the US jurisdiction only. Seabed mining beyond national jurisdiction is regulated by the UN’s International Seabed Authority, which has yet to establish a framework for deep sea mining.
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Images: The Metals Company
