Canadian miner The Metals Company is the first to apply to the Trump Administration for an offshore mining permit

Canada's The Metals Company announced Tuesday that it has filed in the United States the first application for offshore mining, after Donald Trump came out in favor of opening the door to this industry.

The commercial mining application, filed with U.S. authorities by the company's U.S. subsidiary TMC USA, is for the extraction of polymetallic nodules rich in strategic minerals in the Clarion-Clipperton area in the Pacific, according to the company.

"Today marks an important milestone, not only for TMC USA, but for mineral independence and the industrial resurgence of the United States," commented Gerard Barron, CEO of TMC.

The Canadian company, which hopes to be the first to mine polymetallic nodules, a type of metal-rich pebbles, in the Pacific, had announced in March that it wanted to apply to the U.S. administration for the first commercial deepwater mining contract.

This was a surprising change of strategy: initially, the company wanted to submit its application in June to the International Seabed Authority (ISAF), which has jurisdiction over the seabed in international waters.

It has justified its strategy by the slowness of the ISAB in adopting the "mining code" that is to set standards for commercial offshore mining. The United States is not a member of the IAMF.

U.S. President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order aimed at speeding up the review of applications and issuance of exploration permits, including in international waters, under a 1980 law that sets standards for the exploration and "commercial recovery" of seabed minerals in international waters.

For their part, ocean conservationists believe that underwater mining threatens crucial and little-known ecosystems.