What do people think of The Metals Company (TMC)? Generational opportunity or scam?

I like everything in theory about The Metals Company. It's the idea that they can collect tons of precocious minerals from the sea bed with minimal environmental or human impact. The ocean covers about 70% of the Earth. Why limit ourselves to just mining land where we also want to do things like live and farm...

So the theory seems good but then there's the actual company with CEO Gerard Barron. I've seen a lot of people saying that it's really nothing but an elaborate scam and they don't really intend to do any serious mining. There are questions about the legality of mining the ocean. People have said that they don't even make the machines to do the mining. But I've heard rumors that Trump is going to give the green light for this project because he doesn't give two craps about international law. But as always only Trump knows what Trump is going to do, and even on that I'm not so sure.

The stock had been at a low of about 80 cents at the end of 2024 then it jumped to over 9 dollars in 2025 + 2026. Now sitting at 5.50$. So anybody have thoughts on this, is there anything real here or is it just a con job?