The Trump administration is reportedly considering an executive order that would fast-track deep-sea mining in international waters by allowing U.S. companies to bypass the United Nations-backed review process.
According to sources cited by Reuters, the proposed order would affirm the United States’ right to extract critical minerals from the ocean floor, permitting companies to obtain licenses directly through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The move would mark another step in President Donald Trump’s broader effort to secure international supplies of strategic minerals such as nickel, copper, and rare earth elements. It follows his recent use of emergency powers to ramp up domestic mineral production.
The International Seabed Authority (ISA), established in 1982 under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)—which the U.S. has not ratified—has spent years crafting a regulatory framework for deep-sea mining.
In 2021, Canada-based The Metals Company (NASDAQ: TMC), backed by the island nation of Nauru, triggered a provision requiring the ISA to finalize its regulations before any commercial extraction could begin. However, progress has stalled. In March, ISA representatives met in Jamaica to review hundreds of amendments to a 256-page draft mining code, but the session ended without an agreement.
Frustrated by delays, TMC last week formally urged the Trump administration to issue deep-sea mining permits directly, asserting that the ISA had become increasingly hostile to commercial interests.
“The Authority is being influenced by a faction of States allied with environmental NGOs who see the deep-sea mining industry as their ‘last green trophy,’” said TMC Chairman and CEO Gerard Barron. “They have worked tirelessly to continuously delay the adoption of the Exploitation Regulations with the explicit intent of killing commercial industry.”
Global Race for Ocean Minerals
Several countries—including the Cook Islands, Norway, and Japan—are actively exploring deep-sea mining opportunities within their exclusive economic zones, which typically extend 200 nautical miles from shore.
Proponents argue that seabed mining has a smaller environmental footprint than terrestrial extraction and is vital to meet the soaring demand for energy transition minerals. The International Energy Agency forecasts that demand for copper and rare earth metals will increase by 40%, while demand for nickel, cobalt, and lithium—essential to clean energy technologies—could surge by 60%, 70%, and 90% respectively.
However, critics caution that the long-term ecological consequences of deep-sea mining are still largely unknown, urging further scientific research before large-scale commercial activity begins.
Beyond The Metals Company, other players in the deep-sea mining space include California-based Impossible Metals, Russia’s JSC Yuzhmorgeologiya, Blue Minerals Jamaica, China Minmetals, and Marawa Research and Exploration of Kiribati.