The long-term fight over whether to allow undersea mining in the Pacific Ocean has taken an unexpected turn when the company revealed that it had been secretly negotiating plans with the Trump administration to avoid the UN treaty and perhaps begin mining in international waters from the United States.
The proposal, which promptly protested from environmental groups and diplomats from several countries, represents a fundamental shift in the controversial debate over access to seabed sediments, including copper, cobalt, manganese and other metals needed for batteries in electric vehicles.
Established by an agreement ratified by over 160 countries 30 years ago, the International Submarine Authority has jurisdiction over submarine mining in international waters outside the coastal regions of each country.
Undersea officials are slowly creating regulations governing mining. This is highly controversial as the potential impact of industrial activity on marine life is unknown.
Now, already expressing its desire to recapture the Panama Canal and envision control of Greenland, the Trump administration has been granting a license by a Vancouver-based metals company to ignore submarine authorities and begin mining in 2027.
Metals Company CEO Gerard Barron announced the operation Thursday after it was revealed that it could still take years for submarine authorities to finalise mining regulations.
Contractors from countries including China, India, South Korea, Japan and Poland also do exploratory work in international waters under permission from subsea authorities, but none of them have been given permission to commence large-scale mining.
Applications for Metals Company will arrive from our US-based subsidiary in the coming months and will use US registered vessels. The company sends a giant vacuum cleaner-like machine into the seabed 2.5 miles of water, sucking up potato-sized rocks loaded with metal.
Baron said executives have already met with Trump administration officials to promote their plans, which also requires permission from the National Maritime and Atmospheric Administration.
“The United States had a legal framework and regulations to issue licences and commercial recovery permits for deep-sea mineral minerals in international waters,” Baron said Thursday. “Now there's a political will to use existing authorities.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who reached Thursday evening, said he could not say whether the Trump administration would agree to the metals company's proposal, introducing reporters to staff. Agent officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The publicly available metals company spent hundreds of millions of dollars on exploratory work in the Pacific Ocean in an area known as the Clarion Clipperton Zone, a remote area between Mexico and Hawaii. The latest annual report released Thursday shows that there is a near shortage of cash and borrowing institutions, leaving just $43 million in reserves. “We are moving forward urgently,” the company said.
In January, Leticia Carvalho, a Brazilian oceanographer skeptical of undersea mining, became executive director of the submarine authorities, suggesting that final regulations could be delayed even longer.
Over 160 countries have ratified the United Nations Sea Law Convention, created international submarine authorities, and recognized the right to decide where and how submarine mining is carried out.
However, the United States has never signed a treaty. It then urged metals companies to lobby the Trump administration and members of the Congress, claiming that the United States is not a party to the treaty and is free to advance mining in international waters.
The draft is currently circulating executive orders. President Trump will be asked to sign instructing his administration to proceed with the plan, according to two people involved in the discussion that spoke about his anonymity because he was not authorized to publish draft documents.
The Trump administration wants to ensure greater access to the so-called critical minerals needed for manufacturing in the United States, even if it means making new international claims.
During his confirmation hearing, Lutnick expressed general support for undersea mining, but he did not say whether the US would rebel against undersea authorities.
“It's important for America's national security that key rare earth minerals create themselves,” Rutnick said at the confirmation hearing. “Fortunately, we have the greatest land in the world. Beneath our oceans is the rest of what we don't have on the land. We need to harvest it, we need to understand it, we need to take care of America.
A briefing document produced by the Metals Company and obtained by the New York Times stated that before Ludnick became Secretary of Commerce he was the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial company that was the company's chief banker. The metals company also said the plan “has strong support from influential members of the Republican-controlled Congress.”
But even the idea that the US might be considering such a move has sparked outrage from environmentalists and several countries.
At least 30 countries, from Austria to New Zealand, are seeking delays when the undersea mining industry begins, claiming that it is not sufficient as to whether it causes widespread harm to aquatic life and the environment.
“It's a hopeless but rather dangerous thing,” said Louisa Casson, organizer of Greenpeace International, an environmental group that is trying to block undersea mining. “This could be a negotiation tactic to strongly equip submarine authorities.”
Baron pointed to extensive research funded by his company and found that submarine mining has less environmental impact than open-pit and underground mining.
It was expected that more than 12 diplomats representing the nation before undersea authorities in the middle of a working session in Kingston, Jamaica, would decide how to respond to the mining company's plans to meet on Friday.
“This seems to be a completely inappropriate move by a metals company,” said Georgina Maria Gillen Grillo, president of Costa Rica. “They have pushed us to tackle regulations when they don't seem to really care about complying with legal obligations under international law.”
