A Canadian miner promoting deep sea mining in the Pacific has been given official notification of its delisting from America’s Nasdaq stock exchange.

The Nasdaq stock exchange issued a delisting notice to the Canadian miners The Metals Company (TMC) on Monday 5 December.

Environmental group Greenpeace says the TMC has been one of the most ardent proponents of the destructive industry, and was notified after trading below USD$1 at closing bid price for 30 consecutive days.

Greenpeace Aotearoa campaigner James Hita, who was in México to confront the ‘Hidden Gem’ – the TMC-commissioned deep sea mining ship – as it returned from test mining in the Pacific Ocean to the port of Manzanillo, México, say in a statement that the falling stock price and delisting notice is another clear signal to investors in the company that the tide of public opinion is turning against deep sea mining.

“We see a future where the ocean that connects and nourishes us all is thriving,” said Mr. Hita.

“A future where people’s way of life is protected and their spiritual connection to the ocean is respected. Deep sea mining has no place in this future.”

The notice comes as civil society and governments worldwide have increasingly called for a halt to the launch of the industry to protect the ocean. The governments of Palau, Samoa, Fiji, Micronesia, Chile, and New Zealand have all called for a moratorium. Germany has backed a ‘precautionary pause,’ and French President Macron recently called for an outright ban at the latest session of COP27 in Egypt.

Public support for a moratorium by leading technology and electric vehicle companies Rivian, Renault, BMW, Volkswagen, Volvo Group, Scandia, Google, and Samsung SDI raises the question of whether a market for these minerals will exist at all.

TMC is also losing investments. Norway’s largest private asset manager Storebrand divested from the company and will exclude them from investments in the future. Storebrand is the ninth bank to exclude investment in deep sea mining.  The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative has urged investors to avoid the industry.

In July 2021, as the company was about to go public, Greenpeace USA, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, and Global Witness filed a complaint with America’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stating that the company downplayed the potential environmental impacts of its mining plans and “threatened to mislead the investing public concerning the future profitability of the company.”