Companies are mere years away from extracting and shipping the first mineral-rich nodules back to the U.S., according to a top official tasked with implementing President Donald Trump’s push to unleash deep-sea mining in international waters.
Erik Noble, NOAA’s principal deputy assistant secretary for oceans and atmosphere, said Tuesday that he’s working to swiftly implement Trump’s executive order to fast-track exploration and production permits in waters beyond U.S. jurisdiction. Noble was notably dubbed the White House’s “eyes and ears” at NOAA during Trump’s first stint in office.
“What an exciting time to know that within in the next few years, under this administration, there will be companies pulling deep-sea nodules out of the ocean and bringing them to the U.S.,” Noble said at the American Council for Capital Formation’s offshore critical minerals forum in Washington.
Noble and a slew of other top federal regulators from across the federal government appeared at the summit hosted by ACCF, a business advocacy group now led by George David Banks, who served as a senior White House adviser on energy and climate during the first Trump administration.
