The Metals Co (TMC), which was created through the merger of deep-sea mining firm DeepGreen with blank-check company Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corp, started trading on the Nasdaq on Friday at $11.0535 a share.
The Metals Co has exploration licenses for parts of the Pacific Ocean seabed, where it hopes to mine for cobalt, nickel, and other battery metals.
Deep-sea mining has come under fire from environmentalists who call for a moratorium on the practice, saying too little is known about the harm it may cause to deep-sea ecosystems.