Standing behind the lectern at the Nasdaq MarketSite Studio in Times Square, New York City, on Sept. 17, 2021, Gerard Barron slammed his palm down on a button. A bell jangled as a shower of black, white and metallic gold confetti fell from above. Barron and the crowd of people around him, which included the president of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, Taneti Maamau, and Margo Deiye, then-ambassador of another Pacific nation, Nauru, to the International Seabed Authority, cheered and clapped.
This was the moment The Metals Company (TMC), a Vancouver-based deep-sea mining firm, officially joined the Nasdaq Stock Exchange — and its CEO, Barron, a middle-aged Australian who resembles a surfer in business-casual attire, couldn’t hide his excitement. In a speech, he promised that TMC would aid the world’s transition to a greener future by extracting metal-rich rocks from the seafloor that would help build electric cars and solar-power batteries, and that all this could be done in an environmentally friendly way. “Give us a few years,” Barron said, “and you might be able to buy and drive an electric pickup truck with a battery made from nodules that are processed here in the U.S.A.”
But then TMC got a break: Donald Trump won the 2024 U.S. election, and upon taking office he appointed several advocates of deep-sea mining to key positions. These included Marco Rubio as secretary of state, whom TMC had previously dubbed a “nodule champion,” and Howard Lutnick as secretary of commerce, who championed the need to “harvest” seabed minerals during his confirmation hearing. Just three months into his term, on April 24, 2025, Trump signed an executive order authorizing deep-sea mining, not only in U.S. territorial waters, but also in international waters where U.S. jurisdiction is contested. Days later, on April 29, TMC announced it had already submitted its mining application to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. agency overseeing deep-sea mining activities in international waters. Barron has said he expects an answer on it in the very near future.
As this shift unfolded, Barron spoke less about how deep-sea minerals could fuel the green transition. Now he framed the minerals in TMC’s proposed mining areas as a strategic asset for the U.S. — one that could reduce dependence on foreign critical minerals, create around 100,000 jobs, and contribute more than $300 billion annually to the nation’s GDP, as Barron said in a May 14 investor call.
Yet, despite TMC’s business plans appearing to progress, deep-sea mining remains a highly controversial industry, posing both ecological and financial risks, according to critics and industry observers with whom Mongabay spoke. These critics also questioned how smoothly TMC’s ambitious plans might unfold. They cite the high likelihood of litigation and strained relations with global partners over the unconventional path to licensing the company has chosen, not to mention the difficulties of extracting minerals in an economically realistic and environmentally safe way — something TMC has long promised it could achieve. Adding to their unease are TMC’s connections to other deep-sea mining ventures, both past and present — including Nautilus Minerals, Deep Sea Mining Finance (DSMF), and the newly formed American Metal. Individuals in these companies have attracted controversy over the years, which Mongabay is exposing in fresh detail […]
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