How this headline may connect to industries in Alaska. Technical scores are below — click any ? for what a metric means.
Companies join deep-sea mining rush as regulators fast-track permits.Companies join a deep-sea mining rush after Trump executive order, as regulators fast-track permits In the year since President Donald Trump signed an executive order promising to create a deep-sea mining industry from scratch, businesses have raised millions of dollars from investors, stock prices have soared and federal regulators have raced to fast-track a permitting process.At least nine companies are in talks with the government for access to seabed minerals, according to an Associated Press review.Sections of the seafloor from American Samoa to Alaska could be auctioned for offshore mining this summer and through the fall.All the action suggests the U.S.may soon give the green light for companies to commercially mine the seabed — something that has never been done in international waters.But a close look at some of the companies involved reveals uncertain track records and histories spattered with legal disputes, while major questions about how the minerals would be processed and refined remain unanswered.Watchers of the nascent industry are skeptical that the promised riches will ever materialize.“It just feels right to people thinking that there is a cornucopia of metals on the bottom of the seafloor that are just there to be plucked up like seashells on the seashore,” said Victor Vescovo, a private equity investor and deep-sea explorer who has chosen not to back any deep-sea mining companies.“If there’s more scrutiny on their actual financial models,” he added, “you would go, ‘Wait a second, this is much more uncertain.’” Tapping the global seabed Trump’s executive order in April last year marked a sudden embrace of an industry long dormant in the U.S.The president hailed seafloor minerals as vital to America’s future prosperity and its trade independence from China.He directed U.S.agencies to expedite permitting.The most widely prized ores are fist-shaped rocks known as polymetallic nodules, formed over millions of years from the remains of sunken shark teeth and shells.They contain high grades of manganese, copper, nickel and cobalt, and much smaller amounts of rare earth elements.Other parts of the seafloor have drawn prospectors, too: the mineral-rich crusts atop volcanic seamounts, and the rocky mounds flecked with gold and silver near hydrothermal vents.Nearer to shore, companies have proposed dredging ocean sands for titanium, zirconium and phosphorites.But for many companies, seafloor nodules hold the most allure.Trillions of nodules lie on the international seabed between Mexico and Hawaii, scientists say.For more than a decade, delegates from dozens of countries have convened at the headquarters of the International Seabed Authority in Jamaica with the difficult task of creating globally agreed-upon mining rules for those areas, which belong to no single country.The agency has so far granted exploration rights to nearly two dozen contractors but has not allowed any to mine commercially.Under its mandate, the minerals are designated for the shared benefit of “all humankind.” Trump’s order suggests the U.S.will decide for itself when to mine the global seabed, reversing the decision of previous administrations to honor the seabed authority’s rules.In a statement, a White House spokesperson said, “All presidential actions are legally sound.” Fast-tracking the process Geologists have known about polymetallic nodules for more than a century, but it was not until the 1960s that companies started building technology to haul them to the surface.At the time, the laws of the sea were still in the making, with ongoing talks at the United Nations over how countries would use and protect the oceans beyond their borders.When it came to seabed mining, the U.S.was at odds with much of the world over how the resources and technology should be shared.In 1980, with global talks still in progress, Congress passed the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act and created a process for U.S.companies to mine the deep sea.issued four exploration licenses in 1984.Yet in the decades that followed, low metal prices and the brewing uncertainty around international rules pushed several of those companies to forfeit their licenses or dissolve.Today, more than 150 countries agree that deep-sea mining should be mutually governed by the seabed authority.Lockheed Martin holds the only two exploration licenses still active in the U.S.agencies will enforce rules: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees minerals beyond U.S.borders, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a division of the Department of the Interior that regulates offshore oil, gas, wind and minerals in U.S.NOAA has never approved a commercial project for seabed mining; nor has BOEM, beyond a short-lived mining effort in California waters more than 60 years ago.But their leaders, appointed by Trump, are pushing for that to change.In June, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced a mandate for BOEM to “speed up” the development of critical minerals offshore and outlined steps to streamline the regulatory process.The agency soon announced it was evaluating seabed mining in the waters of Alaska, Virginia, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.It plans to hold the first lease sale as early as August, according to a budget proposal, and in the coming months will restructure under the new name of the Marine Minerals Administration.NOAA, too, is working quickly to approve permits.Until this year, the agency required companies to have an exploration license before they could pursue commercial operations; in January, it said companies could apply for both activities at once.NOAA has requested funds to expand its permitting staff and set a target of processing 16 applications next fiscal year.Treasure hunters of the deep So far, the companies answering the call of Trump’s executive order include a firm that once made its money hunting for sunken treasure, and a South Carolina-based startup that sprang from an effort to find Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane.And it includes The Metals Company, long seen as the front-runner in the industry.If the U.S.grants a permit, the firm says it is ready to commercially mine the seafloor before the end of next year.It is one of the few companies to have tested equipment in deep-water conditions — hauling up 3,000 metric tons of nodules in a 2022 trial.The company has close ties to the Trump administration.CEO Gerard Barron says he was in the White House on the day Trump signed the executive order, and since then, he has been invited to speak at three congressional hearings on deep-sea mining.The Metals Company has received financial advice from Cantor Fitzgerald, the investment group Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick led for decades until Trump appointed him to federal office.Lutnick is now in charge of NOAA and could be influential in the final decision on permits.In a January congressional hearing, U.S.Ed Case, a Hawaii Democrat, accused The Metals Company of being “in bed” with NOAA and having advance knowledge of the agency’s plans, citing the close timing of certain events.The Metals Company submitted its seabed mining applications within a week of the executive order last year, and resubmitted them under the streamlined regulations one day after NOAA finalized the new rules.At the hearing, Barron denied the accusation, saying it’s the company’s job to respond to and anticipate government action.“We had lobbied hard” against some of the regulatory inefficiencies, he added.Since 2024, records show the company spent nearly $800,000 on lobbying for seabed mining issues, including permitting.Its stock price hit record highs over the last year.A spokesperson for The Metals Company said in a statement that the firm had no unfair advantages and is well-poised to address the strategic priorities of the U.S.after 15 years of preparation and testing.