TMC the metals Co Inc.

DeepGreen Metals was founded in 2011. That same year, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) granted exploratory contracts for polymetallic nodules and polymetallic sulphides in the international deep seabed Area to Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI), sponsored by the Republic of Nauru, and Tonga Offshore Mining Limited (TOML), sponsored by Tonga. NORI was and continues to be a wholly owned subsidiary of The Metals Company (at the time, DeepGreen Metals). The company would later acquire TOML.

In 2012, DeepGreen entered a deal with Glencore International Inc., in which Glencore agreed to purchase 50% of future nickel and copper production from the NORI contract area west of Mexico. In 2015, the ISA approved an exploration contract to MARAWA, sponsored by the Republic of Kiribati. That same year, MARAWA signed an exclusive commercial contract with DeepGreen.

In 2017, Gerard Barron was named Chairman and CEO, and in 2018 Dr. Gregory Stone, a former chief scientist for Conservation International, joined as Chief Ocean Scientist and Board Director.

In March 2019, Allseas became an investor and partner, adding $150 million in funding for DeepGreen's first large-scale feasibility studies.

In April 2020, DeepGreen acquired TOML from Deep Sea Mining Finance, giving the company exploration rights to an additional section of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. The NORI, TOML, and MARAWA contract areas are all within the CCZ.

In 2021, DeepGreen Metals merged with Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corp (SOAC), a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in a $2.9 billion deal that enabled DeepGreen to go public. The resulting company was renamed The Metals Company and began trading on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the ticker "TMC." [ citation needed ] In June 2021, NORI's sponsoring state, the Republic of Nauru, informed the ISA of its intent to begin exploiting deep sea minerals, which required the ISA to finalize and adopt regulations for deep-sea mining within two years. Also in 2021, The Metals Company hired architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group to design the robotic vehicles and surface vessels that will be used to obtain and transport the metal nodules to an onshore processing facility.

In March 2022, The Metals Company, through its subsidiary NORI, submitted an Environmental Impact Statement for its planned integrated collection system test in the Clarion Clipperton Zone. Following an open stakeholder consultation, NORI was granted permission from the ISA to start trials collecting nodules rich in nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese on the NORI-D area. In 2023, TMC engaged Benchmark Mineral Intelligence to conduct a life-cycle analysis that modeled the environmental impacts of its first NORI-D project. The analysis found that TMC's project outperformed all land-based production routes in most categories. According to the report, deep-sea mining has a global warming potential that is 54%-70% lower than land-based mining, which often involves blasting, deforestation, carbon sink disruption, and contamination of groundwater through waste material tailings. Since first receiving an exploratory contract in 2011, The Metals Company has conducted 22 offshore research campaigns on the NORI exploration area as part of its Environmental and Social Impact Assessment.

In April 2025, following U.S. President Donald Trump's Executive Order on offshore mining, The Metals Company submitted applications for a commercial recovery permit and two exploration licenses under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act and regulations set by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The commercial recovery permit covers 25,160 square kilometers while the two exploration licence applications cover a combined 199,895 square kilometers. The zones hold 1.63 billion wet metric tonnes of polymetallic nodules, which are projected to contain 15.5 million tonnes of nickel, 12.8 million tonnes of copper, 2 million tonnes of cobalt, and 345 million tonnes of manganese

NORI Project

Nauru Ocean Resources Inc (NORI) is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Metals Company. In 2011, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) granted a polymetallic nodule exploration contract to NORI, sponsored by the government of Nauru, for an area covering 74,830 square kilometres in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ). The exploration area has the world's largest undeveloped nickel deposit. In June 2021, Nauru notified the ISA of NORI's plans to submit an exploitation application for the NORI area, which according to Section 1, Part XV of the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, gave the ISA a two-year time frame to complete the adoption of rules, regulations and procedures necessary to facilitate the approval of deep-see mining applications. As of July 2023, the ISA is required to consider and provisionally approve any applications for deep sea commercial exploitation based on the current fourth draft regulations.