NEW YORK, December 30, 2025, 10:23 ET — Regular session
- TMC shares edged lower in early New York trading after a sharp drop in the prior session.
- Investors are refocusing on U.S. and international rulemaking that could shape deep-sea mining timelines.
- Copper’s whipsaw has kept pressure on metals-linked, headline-driven stocks.
Shares of TMC the metals company Inc (TMC) were down about 0.2% at $6.31 in morning trading on Tuesday, after dropping 7.3% in the previous session. The stock has traded between $6.28 and $6.46 so far in the regular session. 1
TMC is one of the few U.S.-listed ways to bet on commercial deep-sea mining — the push to harvest potato-sized polymetallic nodules from the ocean floor that contain nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese. For investors, the near-term story hinges on permitting and legal frameworks more than on near-term earnings power.
In the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is taking public comments on two exploration license applications from the company’s U.S. unit under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, a federal law that governs mining beyond national waters. Comments are due by Feb. 23, 2026, and NOAA scheduled virtual public hearings for Jan. 27-28. 2
Internationally, the rulebook remains a moving target. A MINING.COM report on Tuesday said legal scholars Aline Jaeckel and Erik van Doorn argue the International Seabed Authority — the U.N.-linked body that regulates seabed minerals under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea — cannot lawfully approve mining until it adopts “benefit-sharing” rules, or the framework for how revenues would be distributed. The report also noted companies and would-be entrants are repositioning as regulatory uncertainty persists. 3
Commodity volatility has added another layer. Copper, often treated as a proxy for industrial demand, surged toward $13,000 a metric ton in London on Monday before U.S. futures swung sharply lower, MINING.COM reported, highlighting the market’s sensitivity to trade policy and supply constraints. The outlet also cited BloombergNEF forecasts that energy-transition demand for copper could triple by 2045, with deficits emerging as early as 2026. 4
TMC last gave investors a detailed update in November, when it reported third-quarter results and reiterated its target to begin commercial production in the fourth quarter of 2027 if it receives a commercial recovery permit. Chairman and CEO Gerard Barron said then the company had “no need to come to the public markets anytime soon,” pointing to cash and credit availability. 5
The stock’s pullback into year-end has underscored how quickly sentiment can shift in smaller, policy-sensitive resource names. When liquidity thins, headlines can move prices faster than fundamentals.
Investors will be watching how NOAA’s process evolves during the comment period and what emerges from the late-January hearings. Developments around the ISA’s broader regulatory package — including benefit-sharing — remain another potential swing factor for deep-sea mining-linked equities.
