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BOEM Plans Deep-Sea Mining Lease Sale Off American Samoa

Startup Impossible Metals requested an American Samoa lease sale last month (image courtesy Impossible Metals)
Startup Impossible Metals requested an American Samoa lease sale last month (image courtesy Impossible Metals)

Published May 20, 2025 7:10 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

After a request from U.S. deep sea mining startup Impossible Minerals and a new executive order from President Donald Trump, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has launched the process to hold a mineral lease sale for polymetallic nodule collection off the coast of American Samoa. If approved, it would be the first commercial license for deep sea mineral collection that has been awarded in a generation, and it could provide a test run for a sovereign licensing process that would sidestep oversight by the UN International Seabed Authority (ISA). 

"Critical minerals are fundamental to strengthening our nation's resilience and safeguarding our national interests," said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. "By providing opportunities to responsibly access deep-sea mineral resources, we are supporting both American economic growth and national security."

The president's recent executive order - formulated with input from Canadian firm The Metals Company - drew scrutiny for proposing American permits for work outside of American waters. The order instructed the Commerce Department to come up with a U.S. leasing mechanism for areas beyond sovereign jurisdiction. For legal underpinning, the order taps the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, an obscure statute from the 1980s. This Cold War-era law provides a pathway to unilateral resource recovery on the high seas, bypassing the ISA, which has jurisdiction under UNCLOS. (The U.S. has not ratified UNCLOS.)

This plan attracted criticism from environmental NGOs and from the ISA, which has argued in favor of a UN-mandated licensing system for areas  "the common heritage of mankind."

The most commercially compelling and easily-exploited resource base for deep-sea mining exists in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, midway between Central America and Hawaii, where polymetallic nodules can be found at high densities. This area is far from any exclusive economic zone, and is at the center of the public debate over deep-sea mining - and it is the main focal point for ISA's international regulatory work. 

The most controversial section of the White House order targeted international resource areas like the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, but the same order also instructed the Department of the Interior to come up with a licensing process for resources within the U.S. exclusive economic zone, using Interior's separate authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA). This is the authority that BOEM drew upon for Tuesday's announcement of a lease planning area off American Samoa. 

In a statement, BOEM said that its planning process would follow all of the normal conventions of an OCSLA lease sale, just like an offshore oil or offshore wind lease. BOEM plans for a National Environmental Policy Act review, Federal Register notices, and opportunities for input from indigenous stakeholders, ocean users, industry, government and members of the public. The process will be closely watched at home and abroad, as other nations have an interest in making similar moves.