The E-Waste Column no. 208

18 hours ago
3 min read

Today, we are looking at the planned deep-sea mining in American Samoa.

🌱 What plans does the U.S. government have?

In pursuit of mining the seafloor for copper, iron, zinc and other minerals, the Trump administration has proposed to sell deep-sea mining leases in the federal waters near American Samoa. If the sale and the mining go through, it would “be the world’s first attempt to commercially mine the seabed”. The plan concretely is to auction off a massive sea area, with a water surface covering over 12 million hectares (or over 30 million acres) in total, for potential deep-sea mining. It is worth noting that “[t]he proposed mining area is adjacent to the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument, a marine protected area that serves as a nesting ground and refuge for many threatened and endangered species” and that the plans fail to respect the rules around deep-sea mining as currently set out by the International Seabed Authority. Beyond just American Samoa, there are discussions around selling future leases for the waters around Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Alaska, and Virginia.

🌱 What will the process look like?

The U.S. government formally published the proposed leasing notice on 17 July 2026, and the first sales of mining leases near American Samoa are currently planned for 19 November 2026. The draft notice of intent and the accompanying announcements have notably been made by the newly created “Marine Minerals Administration”, which was formed by merging the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement together. This new U.S. agency has stressed that there is no guarantee yet that a lease sale will be held and that there is also no guarantee that “exploration or collection activities will occur should [the agency] move forward with a sale”. That said, it has already been stated that the planned lease sale will not be open to the public and that “[t]he minimum bid for each of the two lease areas will be $3 million, and royalties in year 11 of the lease will be $1.25 per acre and increase over time”. The U.S. government currently plans to only reach out to the governor of American Samoa after the lease sale, effectively meaning there will be no prior consultation with the affected communities.

🌱 How have the affected territories responded?

American Samoa is a self-governing U.S. territory and it has imposed a moratorium on seabed mining in its own waters. In line with this, the proposed lease sale of commercial deep-sea mining licenses near American Samoa by the U.S. government has been met with strong opposition. Pacific Indigenous leaders, community organizations, conservation groups, and other territorial governments (like those in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands) are now also formally opposing the U.S. federal proposals to mine the outer continental shelf near their territory and the lack of consultation on the matter. They plan on using both legal and political measures to halt the mining. To date, over 3000 residents of U.S. territories have signed petitions opposing deep-sea mining in the region.

💡 In an extra column tomorrow, we will be looking at the role the Dutch, Swiss, and Canadian governments may play in the planned deep-sea mining in American Samoa – so stay tuned.