After years of delay, the deep-sea mining plans of Canadian firm The Metals Company (TMC) now appear to be progressing as it pursues a controversial new path to securing a license to mine in international waters under U.S. jurisdiction. Yet critics and some industry observers question how smoothly TMC’s ambitious plans might unfold, citing the likelihood of litigation and strained relations with global partners over the company’s unconventional path to licensing, among other issues. Adding to the critics’ unease are TMC’s connections to other deep-sea mining ventures, both past and present. Figures in these companies have attracted controversy over the years, which Mongabay is exposing in fresh detail. TMC, however, has brushed away such concerns. “[W]e stand firmly behind our record of transparency, science-based decision-making, and responsible project development,” the company said in a statement to Mongabay. This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Ocean Reporting Network, where Elizabeth Claire Alberts is a fellow. It is part one of a three-part investigation into TMC, its investors, partners and business strategies. Standing behind the lectern at the Nasdaq MarketSite Studio in Times Square, New York City, on Sept. 17, 2021, Gerard Barron slammed his palm down on a button. A bell jangled as a shower of black, white and metallic gold confetti fell from above. Barron and the crowd of people around him, which included the president of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, Taneti Maamau, and Margo Deiye, then-ambassador of another Pacific nation, Nauru, to the International Seabed Authority,…This article was originally published on Mongabay