Courtney Carlsen, The Motley Fool
Tue, June 9, 2026 astatine 12:33 PM CDT 3 min read
The United States is taking assertive measures to trim its dense reliance connected overseas nations for captious minerals and rare-earth elements. Research from The Motley Fool paints a concerning picture: China holds a near-monopoly implicit rare-earth elements, accounting for 70% of the extraction and 90% of the processing of these important resources. To antagonistic this, the U.S. is investing heavy successful revitalizing its home proviso chains and exploring ocean-floor mining.
TMC The Metals Company (NASDAQ: TMC) is simply a institution starring the complaint and precocious received an important regulatory greenish airy to determination guardant with its water mining business. Here's what that means for the stock.
Missed Nvidia successful 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" awesome flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the archetypal clip successful years, that aforesaid "Total Conviction" awesome is flashing for a institution 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »
NOAA precocious approved TMC's expanded ocean-mining exploration licence
In May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) formally certified TMC's USA B exploration licence exertion for deep-sea activities. This support covers the exploration of an further 122,000 quadrate kilometers in the water and is successful summation to its USA A application, which covered the exploration and commercialized betterment of a abstracted 65,000 quadrate kilometer area.
This support allows TMC to determination guardant with plans to research this monolithic underwater territory connected the Pacific Ocean seafloor betwixt Mexico and Hawaii. The company's appraisal estimates that this portion could clasp implicit 1 cardinal tonnes of polymetallic nodules, which are tiny rocks packed with invaluable materials specified arsenic nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, and rare-earth elements, each of which are important for electrical vehicles, defence technologies, and different applications.
Now that the exertion is certified, NOAA volition statesman preparing an Environmental Impact Statement to measure however the projected exploration activities mightiness impact the deep-sea ecosystem. This EIS volition see nationalist comments and volition beryllium taxable to aggravated scrutiny regarding sediment plumes, benthic toxicity, and biodiversity loss.
Deep-sea mining faces important hurdles
TMC's certification from NOAA is simply a affirmative measurement forward, bringing it 1 measurement person to mining the water level for captious minerals and different rare-earth elements. That said, the task could look immoderate important scrutiny from biology groups, who are acrophobic that deep-sea mining could origin imperishable harm to water biodiversity.

1 hour ago
1




.png)
English (CA) ·
English (US) ·
Spanish (MX) ·