Is The Metals Company a Millionaire Maker?

Sat, Aug 16, 2025, 9:12 AM 5 min read

• The Metals Company aims to harvest trillions of metal-rich nodules from the Pacific's Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

• Regulatory approval from the International Seabed Authority is the biggest hurdle, though a U.S. legal loophole could give it first-mover advantage.

• With no commercial revenue and ongoing cash burn, this remains a high-risk, high-reward play.

• 10 stocks we like better than TMC The Metals Company ›

From electric vehicle (EV) batteries to wind turbines to advanced medical devices, rare-earth metals sit at the center of nearly every major technological shift in the 21st century. The problem? They're concentrated in just a handful of countries, with the lion's share of processing capacity in China. It's a concentration of power that has governments and companies alike scrambling to secure non-Chinese sources before a trade dispute or export ban turns supply chains into choke points.

Enter, The Metals Company (NASDAQ: TMC), an early-stage mining company with a plan to scoop billions of tons of metal-rich rocks from the deep Pacific. If it works, these rocks (called "nodules") could feed the clean-energy supply chain for decades, not to mention give the U.S. and allies a rare chance to loosen China's hold on critical minerals.

But with the company yet to secure mining permits, and potentially years away from turning a profit, the gap between vision and reality is about as wide as the ocean the company is trying to mine. All things considered, can this metal stock generate $1 million from today's share price?

First, let's talk opportunity.

The Clarion-Clipperton Zone, where The Metals Company plans to operate, contains trillions of potato-sized polymetallic nodules. These small, metal-rich rocks contain nickel, manganese, copper, zinc, cobalt, and other minerals. In other words, they hold the building blocks for EV batteries, renewable power grids, advanced defense systems, and dozens of other uses.

The U.S. still imports roughly 80% of rare earths, and more than three-quarters of that comes from China. After leaping into the rare-metal business before most of the rest of the world, Beijing now controls about 70% of global rare-earth mining and nearly 90% of processing. Recent export restrictions on certain rare earths and magnets have only underscored the need for alternative sources.

TMC's pitch is that deep-sea mining could deliver rare earths at scale without relying on land-based mines. The plan seems simple enough: With vacuum-like machinery, it'll pump nodules to the surface, process them in a seawater slurry, then discharge sediment back to the sea.