NOAA Publishes TMC USA's Expanded 65,000 km² Consolidated Deep-Sea Mining Application in Federal Register

NOAA published in the Federal Register on August 19, 2026 a Notice of Receipt for The Metals Company's U.S. subsidiary TMC USA's amended consolidated application for a Clarion-Clipperton Zone exploration license and commercial recovery permit under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act. The application, first submitted March 19, 2026 and the first filed under NOAA's new consolidated review process, expands the proposed commercial recovery area from roughly 25,000 km² to about 65,000 km², targeting an estimated 619 million tonnes of wet polymetallic nodules plus exploration upside of another 200 million tonnes. NOAA scheduled a virtual public hearing for October 13, 2026 and set an October 19, 2026 deadline for public comment. The notice followed two days after NOAA published a separate August 17 Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for TMC USA's adjacent 122,000 km² 'USA-B' exploration license application, estimated to hold 1.02 billion tonnes of nodules — together marking the U.S. unilateral permitting track advancing in parallel with the still-unfinished International Seabed Authority mining code.