TMC The Metals Company (TMC -14.16%) just announced some big news.
To set the scene: The deep-sea mine sits on billions of dollars' worth of polymetallic nodules. It's also been sitting at a regulatory impasse. It needs the International Seabed Authority (ISA) to finalize a rulebook for deep-sea mining. That hasn't happened, which has forced TMC to go a different route through the U.S.
Image source: TMC The Metals Company.
The U.S. never joined the ISA, and therefore, it's setting its own rules for mining the deep sea. Last year, the Trump administration signed executive orders to expedite applications for deep-sea mining, and on March 9, TMC's application became the first to be determined in compliance with the new rules.
What that means is TMC could very soon operate under a legal framework for extracting nodules from its multibillion-dollar treasure trove. Whether the ISA will let that happen is debatable, but at the very least, the U.S.'s accelerated timeline could pressure them to finalize a rulebook of their own.
NASDAQ: TMC
Key Data Points
TMC stock currently trades at about $6, with a market cap of about $2.5 billion. The stock trades at about 37% from its starting price of $10, largely due to uncertainty surrounding the metal company's regulatory path.
The business is still pre-revenue, which leaves little clarity on how profitable its eventual operations could be. It's not expected to start earning revenue for at least another year.
Data by YCharts. TTM = trailing 12 months.
As such, TMC stock remains risky for most investors. If it can start harvesting nodules at a commercial scale, the market opportunity could be big. Outside the imagination, though, TMC's financials have very little to stand on.
A $500 investment in TMC, then, is best for aggressive investors who want to speculate on the future of the U.S. metal supply chain. Those who value stability over high returns may want to look at safe stocks instead.
