NOAA deep seabed mining review 2026 — what was decided, and what was not

The headline says NOAA "advances review" of a deep seabed mining application. No licence and no permit has been issued. What NOAA determined is narrower: that the application from The Metals Company USA, LLC "is in full compliance with the information requirements" of the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act (DSHMRA). NOAA describes this as meaning the application "meets the information threshold required by DSHMRA and the implementing regulations in order to move forward with application processing".^[1]

In other words, the finding is about whether the paperwork is complete enough to be processed — not about whether mining should happen. The Federal Register notice makes the same determination in the same words: the application is "fully compliant with the applicable information requirements of the Act and its implementing regulations".^[2]

NOAA also attaches a disclaimer to the application itself: "the statements made in the application do not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA or the views of the U.S. Government". A compliance determination is not an endorsement of the applicant’s claims.^[2]

NOAA lists what comes next. The current step is a 60-day public comment period closing 19 October 2026, plus a virtual public hearing on 13 October 2026 from 3 to 5 p.m. ET; attendees must register by October 9, 2026, 5 p.m. ET, and attendance is limited to 1,000. NOAA says feedback from the public and other federal agencies "will inform NOAA’s decision on whether to certify the company’s application".^[1][2]

Certification is itself conditional. NOAA states that to certify it "must make specified findings under DSHMRA and the regulations, including those regarding the applicant’s financial responsibility and technological capability, as well as the sufficiency of the proposed exploration and commercial recovery plan".^[1]

For this consolidated application, the environmental impact statement comes after certification. NOAA says that if certified, it "would then evaluate the environmental impacts of issuing an exploration license and commercial recovery permit through an environmental impact statement, which would include additional opportunities for public comment". The August determination concerned the information requirements.^[1]

This does not mean no environmental review is under way for TMC USA. Its separate exploration-license application, Application B, was certified on May 26, 2026, and NOAA has published a notice of intent to prepare an EIS for that license.^[4][5]

The release calls this the "first-ever deep seabed mining commercial recovery application". The qualifier is doing real work. It is the commercial recovery permit portion that is described as a first — not deep seabed mining applications in general.^[1]

The Federal Register record shows earlier filings. TMC USA had a previous application "seeking only an exploration license", which NOAA noticed on 23 December 2025 as "Application A" (90 FR 60064), and the consolidated application "superseded" it. NOAA also published a separate notice of receipt on 2 June 2026 for American Deep Sea Minerals, Inc., for an exploration license application.^[2][3]

One more detail is easy to flatten. TMC USA’s "Application B", for an exploration license, which was noticed as part of the same filing, "was not affected by the filing of the consolidated application". The company’s earlier filings were not all replaced by one new one.^[2]

What makes the consolidated route new is procedural. NOAA says "The newly established option of a consolidated application process enables eligible applicants to simultaneously apply for and receive an exploration license and commercial recovery permit", available to applicants who can show "scientific, technical, and financial resources".^[1]

The NOAA release says TMC USA "submitted a consolidated application for an exploration license and a commercial recovery permit on February 6, 2026". The Federal Register notice says "On March 19, 2026, NOAA received an amended consolidated application".^[1][2]

NOAA gives February 6 as the submission date; the notice gives March 19 as the date it received an amended application. The sources do not detail the intervening filing history.^[1][2]

The area is "the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a region of the central Pacific Ocean situated between Hawaii and Mexico", and both documents place it beyond national jurisdiction. The consolidated application "seeks the same area in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone as the original exploration license application".^[1][2]

NOAA frames the resource in policy terms, saying such areas "contain critical minerals essential for defense systems, electronics, and renewable energy technologies, reducing reliance on foreign supply chains", and cites an April 2025 Executive Order, "Unleashing America’s Offshore Minerals and Resources". That is the agency stating the rationale for its own process, and no outside evaluation of it is cited on this page.^[1]

Not established here: the size of the claimed area, tonnage, any timetable for mining, the contents of the application itself, and how this relates to the International Seabed Authority. The application documents and the Executive Order were not opened for this page, and no scientific assessment of seabed mining impacts is cited. The statutory hook that is on the record is 30 U.S.C. 1426(a)(1), cited in the notice as the authority for publishing it.^[2]