By Ernest Scheyder and Jarrett Renshaw
(Reuters) – The White House is weighing an executive order that would fast-track permitting for deep-sea mining in international waters and let mining companies bypass a United Nations-backed review process, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the deliberations.
If signed, the order would mark U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to tap international deposits of nickel, copper and other critical minerals used widely across the economy after recent efforts in Greenland and Ukraine. Trump earlier this month also invoked emergency powers to boost domestic minerals production.
The International Seabed Authority – created by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which the U.S. has not ratified – has for years been considering standards for deep-sea mining in international waters, although it has yet to formalize them due to unresolved differences over acceptable levels of dust, noise and other factors from the practice.
Trump’s deep-sea mining order is likely to stipulate that the U.S. aims to exercise its rights to extract critical minerals on the ocean’s floor and let miners bypass the ISA and seek permitting through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s mining code, according to the sources.
Such a step could give mining companies a formal permitting process to complete and avoid the potential perception that they aim to mine the ocean’s floors without any oversight.
The plans are under discussion and could change before Trump signs the order, the sources said.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Companies that aim to mine the seabed say they consider the practice’s environmental impacts to be significantly smaller than mining on land, although multiple environmental groups say the practice should not be allowed to begin given the potential risks to marine life.
Any country can allow deep-sea mining in its own territorial waters, roughly 200 nautical miles from shore. Governments most interested in developing deep-sea mining industries in their waters include the Cook Islands, Norway and Japan.
The 36-member ISA council met again in Kingston, Jamaica, earlier this month to review hundreds of proposed amendments to a 256-page draft mining code for international waters, although the meeting ended without resolution.
The ISA’s lack of progress led Vancouver-based The Metals Co – which is backed by metals giant Glencore – to formally ask Washington for deep-sea mining permits last Thursday.
The Metals Co said “commercial industry is not welcome at the ISA” and that the U.S. is “a regulator willing to engage with the applicants and give applications a fair hearing.”
AMERICA FIRST POLICIES
The move would mark the latest step back by Trump’s White House from global institutions it sees as at odds with his “America First” economic policies. Trump last week paused contributions to the World Trade Organization, sources told Reuters.
The move could also raise tensions with other nations competing for resources in international waters, and who believe permitting should be in the hands of a global body that oversees access and resolves disputes.
Part of Trump’s hunt for fresh sources of critical minerals has to do with efforts to reduce China’s broad control over their production and processing, with Beijing beginning to block exports of key minerals used in defense applications.
It was not immediately clear what kind of staffing NOAA would require to review deep-sea mining permits. Like many U.S. federal government agencies, NOAA has seen job cuts as part of Trump’s efficiency push with Elon Musk.
Deep-sea mining is also more technically complex than mining on land given the distance from shore, among other factors.
In a visit last week with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington aimed to partner with Kingston on energy-related projects, including “mining opportunities off the seabed.”
Beyond The Metals Co, other companies eyeing deep-sea mining include California-based Impossible Metals, Russia’s JSC Yuzhmorgeologiya, Blue Minerals Jamaica, China Minmetals, and Kiribati’s Marawa Research and Exploration.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder and Jarrett Renshaw; editing by Richard Valdmanis and Marguerita Choy)
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