President Donald Trump signed an executive order on April 24 fast-tracking a new industry, offshore deep-sea mineral mining in the Pacific Ocean.
Trump’s order, titled “Revitalizing American Dominance in Deep Seabed Minerals,” seeks to rapidly develop America’s ability to explore, collect, and process critical deep-seabed minerals. It directs the commerce secretary to surge the exploration and private sector permitting for deep-sea mining off the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.
The order also instructs the secretaries of commerce, interior, and energy to provide a report on private sector interest and opportunities in deep-seabed mining for mineral nodules and “other seabed mineral resource[s],” while also developing a plan to map priority areas within the seabed to “accelerate data collection.”…