Overview

• President Donald Trump has authorized deep-sea mining in U.S. and international waters under a 1980 U.S. law, bypassing the International Seabed Authority (ISA).
• The executive order seeks to bolster U.S. access to critical minerals like nickel, cobalt, and copper while challenging China’s dominance in seabed resource exploration.
• Companies such as The Metals Company and Impossible Metals are pursuing U.S. permits to mine near American Samoa, avoiding multilateral ISA regulations.
• Environmental groups warn of irreversible damage to deep-sea ecosystems, calling the accelerated push for extraction a looming ecological disaster.
• China has criticized the U.S. decision, stating that no nation should bypass international law and the ISA to unilaterally approve seabed mining activities.