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Donald Trump has directed the US government to speed up permitting for deep-sea metals projects in an effort to kick-start the nascent industry and wrest control of critical mineral supply chains from China.
The president on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at rapidly developing the exploitation of minerals deep below the ocean surface by expediting licensing, mapping the seabed and identifying opportunities for miners.
“It will unleash America’s offshore critical minerals and resources,” said a senior administration official ahead of the signing. “[The president] has been very clear that . . . securing access for these rare earths and critical materials is a national and economic security priority.”
Thursday’s action marks Trump’s latest effort to expand US access to critical minerals whose supply chains have long been dominated by China. He has invoked wartime powers to boost US minerals output and is pursuing deals with countries including Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of Congo to secure access to their mineral wealth.
Trump’s latest move marks a challenge to the authority of the Jamaica-based International Seabed Authority, whose 170 members include the EU, China and Brazil but not the US. The ISA has refused to allow commercial mining to go ahead in international waters.
Discussions have centred on the resource-rich Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico, where potato-sized lumps of metal found on the sea floor contain nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese, as well as traces of rare earths, all prized for their use in batteries, electrical wiring or defence applications.
Countries including China and Russia have been exploring the international seabed’s mineral potential under ISA-granted licences, even as discussions at the regulator have failed to finalise a global royalties and taxation regime, or to resolve questions about environmental harms.
China sponsors more exploration contracts allocated by the ISA in international waters than any other country.
Under Thursday’s executive order, US federal government agencies are directed to expedite permits for exploration and commercial recovery of minerals, compile a report on potential opportunities for miners on the US outer continental shelf and develop a plan to map priority areas.
The order also directs the defence department to look into the feasibility of adding seabed minerals to the national defence stockpile.
Following a Financial Times report on US stockpiling plans last month, China warned against any unilateral move on the seabed by the US.
The “international seabed area and its resources are considered the common heritage of mankind”, its foreign ministry said. “No country should bypass the ISA or international law to unilaterally authorise exploration and development activities in the international seabed area.”
The most immediate beneficiary of Trump’s executive order is expected to be The Metals Company, a Vancouver-based and Nasdaq-listed company which has long pushed for permission to mine. TMC last month said it planned to apply to the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for a licence.
The company’s share price has roughly doubled this month, although it is significantly lower than the price it listed at in 2021.
US start-up Impossible Metals also has plans to explore the Pacific seabed and earlier this month said it had applied for a licence for “exploration and potential mining” in US territorial waters off American Samoa.
Even as interest in seabed metals grows, the industry has struggled to attract capital, with large miners reluctant to sign offtake agreements amid oversupply of metals including nickel, and uncertainty about the industry’s regulatory standing.
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