Chances are, you've never heard about this stock that's going to the moon.
Shares of The Metals Company (TMC +2.17%) jumped 82.6% in April, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The stock is now up 180% so far in 2025, as of this writing.
The Metals Company claims to be developing the "world's largest estimated source" of metals for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. So large, it says, that all of its copper, nickel, and cobalt could electrify every passenger car in the U.S.
You might be thinking: Why a stock with anything to do with EVs, when President Donald Trump has reversed the previous government funding programs and is throttling the industry's growth?
Well, something else that The Metals Company is doing, and which has President Trump's support, is driving the stock's rally.
Image source: Getty Images.
The Metals Company welcomes Trump's order
On April 24, the president signed an executive order to fast-track deep-sea mining in a bid to counter China's growth in seabed minerals and create a robust domestic supply in the U.S. to support key sectors like infrastructure, defense, and energy.
Among other things, the president directed the Secretary of Commerce to expedite the process of reviewing and granting licenses to commercially explore, mine, and recover minerals from polymetallic nodules within and beyond the U.S.
Polymetallic modules are deep-ocean deposits that are rich in minerals like manganese, nickel, copper, cobalt, and rare-earth elements.
NASDAQ: TMC
Key Data Points
The Metals Company has been evaluating offshore locations to recover polymetallic nodules since 2019. So it was quick to act, and within days of the president's order, submitted applications for two exploration licenses and a commercial recovery permit.
CEO Gerard Barron said he believes his company could deliver the world's first commercial polymetallic nodule, having invested over a half-billion dollars and "spent more than a decade preparing for this moment, investing in deep-sea science, engineering and technology to build the world's most advanced deep-sea minerals platform."
Not surprisingly, shares of The Metals Company skyrocketed in the last week of April.
What's next for the company stock?
The U.N.-backed International Seabed Authority (ISA) has already raised concerns about the president's executive order, particularly its applicability jurisdictions beyond the U.S. The ISA sets rules, regulations, and procedures for deep-sea mining in international waters but is yet to finalize a mining code that it has been developing for years now.
The U.S. government's move to boost deep-sea mining, therefore, appears to be a big win for the company. In October 2022, the company announced it had completed a 60-minute pilot trial and collected around 14 metric tons of nodules from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean, proving it may already have a technology for deep-sea mining. In November 2022, the company announced it had "concluded the first integrated system test in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean since the 1970s, achieving all significant pilot milestones while collecting approximately 4,500 tonnes of seafloor polymetallic nodules. Over 3,000 tonnes were transported up a 4.3km-long riser system to the surface production vessel, Hidden Gem, while the additional 1,500 tonnes of nodules were purposely left behind on the seafloor as part of the trials."
To be sure, The Metals Company is still far from commercializing operations and making any money. Yet, it looks like an interesting stock worth keeping an eye on by risk takers.
Editor's note: This article has been corrected.
