Trump’s Executive order 

Trump has signed an Executive Order establishing a framework for American companies to identify and commercially extract offshore critical minerals and resources in both National and International waters. It is the latest in a series of orders issued by the US president to try to increase America’s access to minerals used by the aerospace, green technology and healthcare sectors.

China currently dominates global production of rare earths and critical metals like cobalt and lithium, controlling access to critical mineral supply chains.  U.S. access to these critical minerals has dwindled in recent months as Beijing has limited exports of several types. That, in turn, has ratcheted up pressure on Washington to support efforts to boost domestic mining. The order therefore seeks “to counter China’s growing influence over seabed mineral resources”, according to the White House statement.

The companies ready to take the plunge

The U.S. now joins Norway, Japan and a few other nations seeking to mine their domestic waters.

Companies are already lining up to mine U.S. waters. The Canada-based Metals Company said it would request approval through a US subsidiary for mining in international waters: “We have a boat that’s production-ready,” CEO Gerard Barron told the New York Times, “we’re just missing the permit to allow us to begin.” Similarly, U.S. company Impossible Metals announced it had submitted a leasing request to the U.S. government to mine in waters off American Samoa.

International companies  eyeing up deep-sea mining in US waters include Russia’s JSC Yuzhmorgeologiya, Blue Minerals Jamaica, China Minmetals, and Kiribati’s Marawa Research and Exploration.

Image description: Rays of sunlight penetrating the ocean and illuminating the seabed. Image by Jeremy Bishop / Pexels.

Controversy, criticism and clap-backs 

To date miners have been held at bay by the U.N.- affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA), as its 169 member states (plus the EU) slowly draft rules to govern seabed mining. 

Trump’s move to allow exploration outside US national waters has therefore been met with strong condemnation from China, which said it “violates” international law, by bypassing the long-running round of UN negotiations. Many countries, including China, have delayed issuing permits until countries agreed a framework for how resources could be shared.

In a statement emailed to Mongabay, ISA Secretary-General Leticia Carvalho said “any commercial exploitation carried out in the international seabed without the authorization of the Authority would, thus, constitute a violation of international law.”

Additionally, many scientists and conservationists argue that deep-sea mining would be an environmental disaster. In 2023, more than 800 marine science and policy experts signed a statement that calls for a pause on deep-sea mining, saying it would place considerable stress on marine ecosystems that are already threatened by other things like climate change, bottom trawling, and pollution. A 2023 survey found at least 5,000 new-to-science species live in the Clarion Clipperton Zone, and just this month a baby colossal squid was recorded for the first time in its deep-sea home. Trump’s executive order “is an insult to multilateralism and a slap in the face to all the countries and millions of people around the world who oppose this dangerous industry,” said Arlo Hemphill, project lead on Greenpeace USA’s campaign to stop deep-sea mining.

The Metals Company CEO Gerard Barron has also been accused of a“total lack of humanity and regard for the Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific Ocean” by Pelenatita Kara, the National Deep Sea Mining Coordinator for the Civil Society Forum Tonga.

There is also an ongoing debate around the claimed discovery of ‘dark oxygen’, the potential production of deep-sea oxygen in the absence of sunlight, and the urgent need for further research into the validity and implications of this theory before any mining takes place.

A new reflection paper co-authored by PML Honorary Fellow Torsten Thiele has urged the International Seabed Authority to declare a moratorium/precautionary pause on such activity. The paper, titled “Delivering Benefits to Humankind: Opportunities for the International Seabed Authority under a Deep-Sea Mining Moratorium,” has been published by the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) and explores the “critical opportunities available to the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and the world under a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep-sea mining.”