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President Donald Trump’s executive order backing a deep-sea mining industry has set off a rapid scramble: companies have sought investor money, and federal agencies have been racing to streamline permitting. An Associated Press review found at least nine companies in talks with the government for access to seabed minerals, with federal plans suggesting parts of the seafloor could be auctioned for offshore mining this summer and continuing through the fall.
The order, signed in April last year, marked an abrupt embrace of a sector that had long been dormant in the U.S., according to the AP report. Trump’s administration has framed seafloor minerals as vital to the country’s future prosperity and as a way to reduce trade dependence on China, and the order directed U.S. agencies to expedite the permitting process.
The regulatory push would amount to the U.S. moving toward commercial seabed mining in international waters—an outcome the report describes as unprecedented—while the underlying global rules remain the responsibility of the International Seabed Authority in Jamaica. The authority has granted exploration rights to nearly two dozen contractors but has not allowed any commercial mining, and its mandate designates minerals for the shared benefit of “all humankind.”
In a statement, a White House spokesperson said “all presidential actions are legally sound,” as the AP reported. The report said the executive order indicates the U.S. would decide for itself when to mine the global seabed, reversing earlier administrations’ approach of honoring the seabed authority’s rules.
Federal oversight would be handled by two U.S. agencies: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees minerals beyond U.S. borders, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which regulates offshore oil, gas, wind and minerals in U.S. waters. NOAA and BOEM “have never approved a commercial project for seabed mining,” the report said, adding that BOEM has regulated offshore resources while also managing a short-lived mining effort in California waters more than 60 years ago.
The AP report described agency changes intended to speed up review. It said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced a mandate for BOEM to “speed up” the development of critical minerals offshore and that BOEM soon began evaluating seabed mining in waters of Alaska, Virginia, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, with the first lease sale planned “as early as August” in a budget proposal. It also said BOEM plans to restructure under a new name, the Marine Minerals Administration.
NOAA’s recent shift, the report said, moved away from a requirement that companies hold an exploration license before pursuing commercial operations. It said that in January NOAA told companies they could apply for both exploration and commercial activities at once and that NOAA requested funds to expand its permitting staff, setting a target of processing 16 applications next fiscal year.
The companies lined up for the fast-tracked process include The Metals Company, Impossible Metals and other bidders, the AP said, along with firms that have earlier histories in shipping, treasure hunting or coastal mineral projects. The report described The Metals Company as having “close ties” to the Trump administration through a leadership and advisory network and said CEO Gerard Barron told lawmakers he had been in the White House the day the executive order was signed. Barron denied accusations at a January congressional hearing that the company was “in bed” with NOAA and had advance knowledge of the agency’s plans, saying it was the company’s job to anticipate government action.
Other business histories highlighted in the AP report include Odyssey Marine Exploration, which began as a treasure hunter and later faced legal disputes related to salvage; the report said the company shifted toward seafloor minerals after those conflicts. The report also described impossible Metals, a startup that has positioned itself as “the most environmentally friendly” bidder, and said it has built a plan around using robots designed to collect only rocks that it says do not contain marine life, while offering island territories 1% of future profits. The company did not respond to AP’s requests for comment.
Even as the roster of applicants grows, the AP report laid out skepticism from investors, scientists and mining consultants about whether the economics can match the hype. It quoted Victor Vescovo, a private equity investor and deep-sea explorer who has chosen not to back deep-sea mining companies, saying: “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,” and adding, “If there’s more scrutiny on their actual financial models, you would go, ‘Wait a second, this is much more uncertain.’”
The report also described concerns that are both environmental and technical, including arguments that the deep ocean remains under-studied and that mining could harm fragile ecosystems. It said economic doubts center on pricing, costs and demand for metals contained in polymetallic nodules, which scientists say include manganese, copper, nickel and cobalt. Copper is often described as the most likely to sustain demand, but consultants told AP that metal forecasts can change and that deep-sea mining could struggle to compete with more accessible sources on land.
Regulators and industry executives have pointed to momentum and future refining capacity, but the AP report said questions remain about where nodules would be processed in the U.S., with major domestic processing facilities currently lacking for several key metals. The report also noted that legal and financial hurdles could complicate reliance on foreign partners and that some experts doubt whether the mining companies’ projections reflect realistic costs and prices.
Meanwhile, political and community concerns are also shaping the path ahead. In U.S. territories, the AP report said American Samoa has banned deep-sea mining in local waters, Guam has banned it too, and concerns have emerged in the Northern Marianas as well, with final decisions beyond 3 miles from shore in the hands of the federal government. The report said Impossible Metals has emphasized its plan’s environmental safeguards, while critics have questioned whether the technology will work as claimed and whether there will be enough profit to share.
Until permits are issued, the AP report portrayed the industry as still in a proving phase—fast-tracked by policy, backed by investment, but met with ongoing uncertainty about feasibility, environmental impact and economic returns. The White House’s position, as quoted by AP, is that the administration’s actions are legally sound, even as regulators move toward potential auctions and permitting milestones.