• A news article from the weekend seemed to highlight potential opportunities for deep-sea mining.

• On April 24, the Trump administration issued an executive order to speed up the licensing of deep-sea mining operations.

• A study sets the value of seabed metals at $20 trillion.

• We prefer 10 stocks than TMC Metals

Vancouver-based stocks TMC Metals (NASDAQ:TMC) As of 1:07 p.m. ET, it rose 22.7% on Monday.

Metals companies are in Wall Street Journal The article last weekend highlighted the Trump administration’s April 24 executive order directing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to grant mining companies a license to extract critical metals from the seabed. Metals include manganese, cobalt, copper and nickel.

While the executive order took place in late April and metal companies surged in the news, it was apparently WSJ The work increases the company's visibility and overall huge financial opportunities, making the stock higher.

this WSJ The work points out that through analysis by consulting firm Arthur D in 2024, Little estimates the global value of subsea metals to be $20 trillion. Although the government's executive order involves objections from the International Seabed Authority, WSJ It also highlighted a 2021 MIT study and the recent UK National Oceanography Centre study, each showing that environmental impacts may not be as bad as feared.

It is worth noting that the Metal Company, founded in 2011, was set up specifically for deep-sea opportunities along the California coast. Following the executive order, TMC applied for a license only five days later—the first company to do so. After orders and applications, the company raised $37 million in equity from a strategic investor, at $3 per share, and the company said it was enough to fund itself through a potential licensing issue.

"We have invested more than $5 billion and more than a decade of preparation," Chairman and CEO Gerard Barron said in a first-quarter update.

TMC's market cap is now about $2 billion, and even if the company is not getting any revenue and is raising more funds, it is causing losses. Therefore, the stock is very speculative here and is not suitable for conservative investors.

Nevertheless, as an early promoter of this potentially huge opportunity, TMC has a lot of things right if there are a lot of things that are right if the necessary permits are obtained, if it can extract these metals from the seabed in a cost-effective way, and if the prices of these metals produce the necessary returns, then it has a lot of room for upside. So for investors interested in these types of “lottery” opportunities, metal companies are the names to add to your list, especially after orders are executed on April 24.