A year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aiming to build a domestic deep-sea mining industry from scratch, businesses have raised millions of dollars from investors, stock prices for several startups have climbed, and federal agencies have moved to accelerate a permitting process that could open sections of the Pacific seafloor to extraction as early as this summer.
At least nine companies are in discussions with the government for access to seabed minerals, according to an Associated Press review of federal records and company disclosures. The areas under consideration stretch from American Samoa to Alaska, and the first auctions of offshore mining rights could begin in the coming months, the review found. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with other federal regulators, has been directed to fast-track the permitting framework under the May 2025 executive order.
The order, which framed deep-sea mining as a national security priority to secure critical minerals for batteries and advanced manufacturing, has produced what industry analysts describe as a land-rush dynamic in a sector that does not yet commercially exist. No company has ever mined the seabed in international waters at commercial scale, and the International Seabed Authority, the U.N.-affiliated body that governs mining in areas beyond national jurisdiction, has yet to finalize exploitation regulations.
Gerard Barron, chief executive of The Metals Company — one of the firms pursuing seabed claims — has said the U.S. push could unlock vast reserves of nickel, cobalt, and manganese nodules. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has also publicly backed the effort. But a close examination by the AP of some of the companies seeking permits reveals uncertain track records and histories spattered with legal disputes. Several of the firms are startups with limited operational experience in offshore extraction, and major questions about supply chains — including where and how the raw nodules would be processed and refined — remain unanswered.
Industry watchers and marine scientists have expressed skepticism that the promised economic returns will materialize. Critics argue that the technology for commercial-scale seabed mining is unproven, the environmental risks to deep-ocean ecosystems are poorly understood, and the regulatory architecture required to govern extraction is still under construction both domestically and internationally. James Deckelman, a former mining executive, told the AP that the administration’s timeline is “aggressive,” while Rep. Ed Case, a Hawaii Democrat, said Congress has not been adequately consulted on the permitting framework. Elizabeth Klein, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and other administration officials have said the fast-tracked process will include environmental reviews, though the scope and timeline of those reviews have not been detailed.
The executive order’s one-year mark arrives as MSI has reported on a broader White House effort to accelerate resource extraction across multiple fronts, including the lifting of a mining ban near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters in April 2026 and the decision to reopen an Atlantic Ocean national monument to commercial fishing earlier that year.