The Trump administration proposed this country’s first deep-sea mining lease sale Thursday off the shores of American Samoa, even as the territory’s Republican leadership calls for a moratorium.
The Marine Minerals Administration is proposing to award 20-year leases for two sections of land on the floor of the South Pacific Ocean, which would cover more than 31 million acres total. The sale would be held on Nov. 19, according toa proposed lease on the agency’s website. Deep-sea mining involves the collection of baseball-size nodules rich in cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese from the ocean floor.
Minimum bids would be set at $3 million for each lease area, while escalating royalties would start at $1.25 per acre and increase over time.
Federal officials are moving at a fast clip to open swaths of offshore areas under U.S. jurisdiction and beyond to exploration and mining even though the practice has yet to be proven commercially viable and faces intense pushback. Agencies are looking at both mining in international waters and considering leases for various parts of the outer continental shelf.
