The Trump Administration is reportedly considering an executive order that would enable the stockpiling of metals mined from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The prospect comes as the administration looks to become less reliant on other countries for critical minerals like copper, cobalt, and lithium.
Nations are currently negotiating a “road map” that would govern any potential deep-sea mining in international waters. If the U.S. were to move forward with plans to support mining in the Pacific Ocean, it would do so without the approval of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the intergovernmental agency which has jurisdiction over mining in the high seas. The Metals Company, a Canadian mining firm, disclosed last month that it is working with the Trump Administration to potentially gain authorization from the U.S. to mine in international waters—bypassing international approval. The Trump Administration, however, has not publicly confirmed this.
What is deep-sea mining?
Deep-sea mining is the process of extracting metals and minerals—including nickel, cobalt, and copper—from the sea floor. The minerals are found in several places, including hydrothermal vents on the sea floor, as well as in different mineral deposits such as polymetallic nodules, which look like a sort of rock, and ferromanganese crusts which are found on seamounds. Once the minerals are extracted, they are processed on land.
Countries are able to pursue mining projects in their own exclusive economic zones, which extend 200 nautical miles outside their shorelines, but the most sought-after resources are in international waters. For decades, the ISA has been working to regulate the seabed ungoverned by national jurisdictions, known as “the Area.” The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), adopted in 1982, laid out the jurisdiction of international waters, and regulated mineral activity. Currently, the ISA has not authorized mining, though the agency has issued more than 30 exploratory contracts meant to explore mineral content, test equipment, and examine potential environmental impacts.
Are countries pursuing deep-sea mining?
In recent years, as global demand for critical minerals continues to rise thanks to new electronic devices and a burgeoning clean energy industry, the ISA has faced mounting pressure to finalize regulation on commercial mining in international waters. In 2021, the Pacific Island nation of Nauru informed the ISA that it planned to begin mining in international waters, triggering a “two-year rule” that would require the ISA to “consider” and “provisionally approve” applications to mine within two years of the notification. The ISA did not finalize rules when the time elapsed in 2023, and extended the deadline to this year. No country has mined in the high seas, but several countries, including Brazil, China, and the Cook Islands are supportive of deep-sea mining in their own economic zones.
The U.S. has not signed on to UNCLOS—though it has typically followed it. In 1980, Congress enacted the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, which was meant to provide a framework for deep-seabed mining until the U.S. could formally adopt the U.N. treaty. But now, with the Trump Administration poised to potentially fast track mining contracts, it could circumvent international law. The Department of Commerce has the authority to give permits and licenses for companies to pursue deep-sea mining on the high seas.
“It does so ignoring the fact that the International Seabed Authority under the Law of the Sea Treaty also has a framework for giving nations permission and the ability to mine all the high seas,” says Jeff Watters, vice president of external affairs at Ocean Conservancy. “If [the U.S.] were to pursue things under this law, it does so unilaterally, as if the Law of the Sea Treaty wasn’t out there. So it’s a potential for setting up a crash between interests if you’ve got the U.S. pursuing mining.”
Why might the U.S. be interested in deep-sea mining?
The Financial Times reports that the Trump Administration’s stockpile plan is part of a larger push to fast-track deep-sea mining applications under U.S. law, as demand for critical minerals surges, largely to meet the global growth of clean energy. Minerals like copper, cobalt, and nickel are needed for many emerging technologies such as solar panels and wind turbines.
“The drive for critical minerals and the supply chain pinch points globally that we all experienced over the last several years kind of has highlighted for many people, the critical nature of a number of materials that many technologies are highly dependent upon, and the limited supply chains that currently exist,” says Watters.
Deep-sea mining, however, may not be the only way the U.S. hopes to ramp up its mineral supply. The Trump Administration has also declared its intent to seize control of Greenland—rich in minerals like zinc and graphite—and push for a deal that would give the U.S. a major stake in Ukraine’s natural resources.
What are the environmental risks?
Deep-sea mining comes with environmental risks—much of which is still unknown.
“It’s important to note that we have not currently assessed whether all of the potential environmental risks are indeed actual risks, as the research on the environmental impacts of deep-sea mining is still in its infancy,” Jessica Fitzsimmons, a chemical oceanographer at Texas A&M University, said in an email to Time. She adds that not enough research has been done on how deep-sea mining might impact the ocean’s role in absorbing a quarter of all current carbon dioxide emissions.
In light of the unknown impacts, more than 30 governments have called for a moratorium on the practice, saying that there is not enough information on the risks.
Mining could cause harm to wildlife—including species we don’t currently know about. “Most of them are still undescribed, and so we don’t know much about what they do and how they work, and we don’t know their role in keeping the planet healthy,” says Lisa Levin, professor emerita of biological oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
Specific types of mining might have different impacts. Destroying hydrothermal vents, for example, could all but permanently destroy the ecosystem, given the slow time frame it takes for them to develop.
“It’s like clear cutting the forest,” says Watters. “You’re talking about completely destroying a deep-seabed environment for all intents and purposes on the human scale permanently. Because these areas take hundreds or thousands of years potentially to recover and develop, [and] because deep-sea environments operate on a very slow time frame.”
