Today, the US depends on foreign sources, primarily China, for the majority of critical minerals essential to modern defense, energy, and advanced technology.
The very materials used in F-35 fighter jets, electric vehicles, semiconductors, and grid-scale storage are predominantly controlled by strategic adversaries.1
Washington is responding by making critical mineral security a national priority, deploying executive authority, taking direct government equity stakes, and mobilizing institutional capital to reverse decades of supply chain vulnerability.
The evidence is measurable:
- The US government launched Project Vault, a $12 billion initiative to establish a domestic strategic critical minerals reserve.2
- The Pentagon took a $400 million direct equity stake in MP Materials, becoming its largest shareholder in the only operational rare earth mine in the US.3
- Washington took a 10% stake in Trilogy Metals,4 a 5% stake in Lithium Americas,5 and backed $1.6 billion in funding for USA Rare Earth.6
- The DFC joined a $1.8 billion consortium to secure critical mineral supply chains.7 JPMorganChase committed to a $1.5 trillion Security and Resiliency Initiative to finance industries critical to national economic security.8
With shifting policy, we see the beginning of a potential structural realignment of American industrial capital.
This company is built for this moment. The Metals Royalty Company Inc. (NASDAQ:TMCR) is a financing provider targeting royalties, streams and structured interests in critical minerals to secure American mineral sovereignty. It is the only publicly traded company with royalty exposure to what may be one of the most strategically important undeveloped critical metals deposits on earth.9
The Business Model That Has Minted Fortunes for Decades
Royalty and streaming companies found a better way to participate in mining.
Instead of owning the mine, they own a financial interest in production. They provide upfront capital to operators in exchange for a percentage of revenue, often for the life of the asset, with no ongoing capital commitments, no direct operating exposure, and no direct inflation risk.
Franco-Nevada paid roughly $2 million for a single royalty in 1986. That royalty eventually generated over $1 billion in revenue. Franco-Nevada used it as a platform asset to build off and is now worth over $50 billion.10
Wheaton Precious Metals built a $70 billion company starting with a single silver streaming agreement.
Royal Gold anchored itself to one cornerstone asset in Nevada. The formula is proven: get the model right, anchor it to a world-class asset, and let time, scale, and scarcity do the heavy lifting.
Over the past decade, major royalty and streaming companies delivered cumulative returns of over 600%, trading around 2x P/NAV compared to approximately 1x for diversified miners.
And yet, for all the value this model has created in gold and silver, nobody has applied it to critical minerals at scale. There is no Franco-Nevada for critical minerals.
That is the white space The Metals Royalty Company Inc. (NASDAQ:TMCR) was built to occupy. TMCR believes the category is open, the moment is now, and NORI is the platform asset to build off.
Zero Debt, Tight Structure, One Potentially World-Class Anchor Asset
TMCR’s (NASDAQ:TMCR) business is designed to deliver commodity and asset upside without direct exposure to development capital costs, operating expense inflation, or the execution risk that comes with operating a mine. The capitalization structure reflects the conviction of everyone at the table.
55.1 million basic shares outstanding. ~$31.0 million in cash. Zero debt. ~66% insider and strategic ownership. A free float of less than ~20%.
The Hess family, who sold Hess Corporation to Chevron for $55 billion,11 holds a cornerstone position. TMC the metals company (NASDAQ:TMC) holds a 25% strategic stake in the royalty on its own flagship project. The operator and the royalty holder are partners in the same outcome.
The portfolio is anchored by a 2.0% gross overriding royalty (GORR) on the NORI project, ranked by Mining.com as one of the world’s potentially largest undeveloped nickel-equivalent resources.12
The NORI Royalty, One of the Potentially Most Consequential Financial Instruments in Critical Minerals
The NORI project sits in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a stretch of Pacific Ocean seabed between Hawaii and Mexico, containing what may be one of the most concentrated deposits of critical minerals on the planet.
Potato-sized polymetallic nodules have accumulated on the seafloor for millions of years, naturally concentrating nickel, copper, cobalt, and manganese within each nodule, four of the most critical inputs for EVs, grid storage, and defense applications.
TMC the metals company Inc. (NASDAQ:TMC) has spent 15 years and over $700 million advancing NORI toward commercial production.13
TMC has completed 23 offshore research campaigns, lifted over 3,000 tonnes of nodules from the seafloor in the first integrated nodule collection test since the 1970s, and completed pilot scale processing and bench scale refining work to turn the nodules into metals critical for American re-industrialization.
Korea Zinc, one of the world’s largest metals processors, invested $85.2 million and became TMC’s processing and refining partner alongside PAMCO. Glencore signed an offtake covering 50% of expected nickel and copper production.
The Metals Royalty Company Inc. (NASDAQ:TMCR) holds a 2.0% GORR on all metals and minerals from the NORI areas.14 No capital commitment to the project. No operating obligation to the project. A contractual right to a percentage of gross revenue from product sold from the first day of production, for the life of the project.
The US Permitting Runway Has Never Been Clearer
In April 2025, President Trump signed an executive order15 directing federal agencies to accelerate offshore and deep-sea critical mineral development. NOAA responded by accelerating permitting under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act of 1980, giving TMC USA a US pathway to commercial recovery independent of the International Seabed Authority process.
In January 2026, TMC USA filed the first consolidated deep-seabed mining application under that framework.16 On March 9, 2026, NOAA determined the application is in substantial compliance with DSHMRA,17 advancing it into full technical and environmental review. We believe that is the single most significant regulatory milestone in the history of this project.
The Metals Royalty Company Inc. (NASDAQ:TMCR) is an indirect financial beneficiary of every step forward. No additional investment is required by TMCR. They hold an existing royalty agreement that becomes potentially more valuable with every regulatory milestone.
8 Reasons
The Metals Royalty Company (NASDAQ:TMCR) Deserves a Spot on Your Radar
1
The Cornerstone Asset. Mining.com ranks NORI as one of the world’s potentially largest undeveloped nickel-equivalent resources.19 TMCR (NASDAQ:TMCR) holds a 2% royalty on all of it.
2
Paid on Top-Line Revenue, No Deductions. TMCR holds a gross overriding royalty, paid on a fixed percentage of the top-line value of whatever is produced and sold. Simple, predictable.
3
Zero Capex. Zero Opex. Zero Inflation Exposure. The Metals Royalty Company Inc. (NASDAQ:TMCR) is not responsible for the construction or operational costs at NORI. If costs rise at the project, the royalty is unaffected by reduction in the operator’s net revenue. When production scales, TMCR’s revenue scales with the operator’s gross revenue.
4
Tight Structure Built for Maximum Shareholder Alignment. TMCR (NASDAQ:TMCR) has approximately 66% of shares held by the Hess family, founders, management, and TMC, and a free float of approximately 20%. The people who built this vehicle overwhelmingly own it.
5
A Business Model with a Decade of Demonstrated Outperformance. Major royalty and streaming companies delivered cumulative returns of over 600% over the past decade, trading around 2x P/NAV versus 1x for diversified miners. TMCR applies the best compounding business model in the natural resources sector to a category where the established royalty majors are not yet entrenched.
6
The US Permitting Pathway is Now the Clearest it’s Ever Been. TMC USA filed the first consolidated commercial recovery application under DSHMRA. NOAA confirmed substantial compliance.20 The Metals Royalty Company Inc. (NASDAQ:TMCR) benefits from every milestone by TMC with no additional capital deployed or operational risk assumed by TMCR.
7
Permanent Capital. No Short-Term IRR Mandates. TMCR (NASDAQ:TMCR) was purpose-built as a permanent capital vehicle, able to finance assets across full commodity cycles and hold through the decades-long production profiles world-class assets require.
8
The Anchor, Not the Ceiling. NORI is the cornerstone, but The Metals Royalty Company Inc. (NASDAQ:TMCR) was built as a platform to grow a portfolio of royalties, streams, and structured interests across the full critical minerals value chain focused on American sovereignty.
The Team That Built This and the Relationships That Make It Matter
Brian Paes-Braga has built, financed, and exited over C$5 billion in transactions since 2015. He was a board member of DeepGreen Metals, now NASDAQ:TMC, from its earliest days. He did not arrive at this project. He helped build the foundation for it.
Gerard Barron is the Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of TMC the metals company Inc. (NASDAQ:TMC). He has been building TMC since 2011 and raised over $700 million to advance it. His board seat at TMCR (NASDAQ:TMCR) means the person driving TMC toward production has a direct stake in the royalty that pays when it does.
Michael Hess is Chief Investment Officer of Hess Capital. His relationships across American investment, policy, and industrial circles are a competitive advantage that cannot be manufactured from scratch. The Metals Royalty Company Inc. (NASDAQ:TMCR) benefits from those conversations.
The Catalyst Stack Is Building. Here Is What Comes Next.
- March 2026 – NOAA substantial compliance determination – already achieved. The application is now in full technical and environmental review under DSHMRA.
- NOAA commercial recovery permit – every regulatory milestone between now and that decision narrows the remaining risk and raises the fair value of the GORR.
- Portfolio expansion – TMCR enters the public markets with a clean balance sheet, a tight share structure, and a macro environment that is moving decisively in its direction. It has meaningful work ahead – building the royalty portfolio, deploying capital into the next generation of critical mineral projects, and supporting the onshoring of American mineral security. That work begins now.
- TMC targeting first production in Q4 2027 – converting permit to cash flow, with no additional capital deployed by TMCR and no operational risk assumed by TMCR.
As NORI advances through its regulatory pathway and TMCR seeks to deploy capital into additional royalties, the two engines of potential value creation for this company are running simultaneously and in the same direction.
The Bottom Line
America is in the early innings of the most consequential industrial mobilization since World War II. The capital to fix its mineral vulnerability is now flowing through executive orders, government equity stakes, and regulatory acceleration at a scale that is redefining an entire sector.
The Metals Royalty Company Inc. (NASDAQ:TMCR) was built for this exact moment in critical minerals. It holds a publicly traded royalty interest in what may be one of the world’s largest undeveloped polymetallic resources. Zero debt. Tight share count. ~66% strategic insider ownership. A battle-tested business model in mining applied to what may be the most consequential resource category of the next decade.
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