The Metals Company said NOAA formally certified its U.S. subsidiary’s USA B exploration license application, moving the project into the next stage of the regulatory process.
The USA B application area covers about 122,000 square kilometers of seafloor and is estimated to contain 1.02 billion tonnes of polymetallic nodules, according to the company’s technical report summary from August 2025. The company said the nodules contain nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese, along with several rare earth elements.
NOAA is now set to begin preparing an environmental impact statement for the planned exploration activities in the USA B area. After that, NOAA is expected to publish a notice of intent, then a draft environmental impact statement and draft terms, conditions and restrictions for public comment, before issuing a final determination on the license.
The USA B certification follows NOAA’s April 28, 2026 determination that The Metals Company’s separate consolidated application for the USA A area was fully compliant with the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act and its regulations. That USA A filing was submitted on January 22, 2026.
The company said it and its partners have spent more than a decade building scientific and engineering datasets around polymetallic nodules and surrounding ecosystems. It said independent academics have published 37 peer-reviewed studies based on that dataset so far.
Gerard Barron, chief executive and chairman, said the certification marks another milestone in NOAA’s process and that exploration is a critical step toward unlocking the nodule resource for the United States. As a result of these announcements, the company's shares have moved 3.68% on the market, and are now trading at a price of $5.92. For more information, read the company's full 8-K submission here.
