Trump Administration Finalizes First U.S. Deep-Sea Mining Lease Sale Off American Samoa

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump administration issued a final leasing notice for the first deep-sea mining lease sale in U.S. history, offering about 31 million acres of seabed off American Samoa to mining companies in a sale that will take place on November 19th. 

“The administration is selling off an ocean we barely understand to companies seeking to exploit minerals that took millions of years to form,” said Taryn Kiekow Heimer, director, Ocean Energy at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). “Deep-sea mining would turn fragile ocean habitats into industrial wastelands. This is not simply mineral extraction—it is a gamble with ocean habitats that cannot be replaced on human timescales. American Samoa banned deep-sea mining in its own waters two years ago. The people of American Samoa don’t want it. For local communities, protecting the ocean means safeguarding the fisheries that sustain daily life, the cultural traditions passed down through generations, and the waters entrusted to their care for future generations. Pushing this sale through anyway, at a mining company’s request, is exactly the kind of speed that makes this industry so dangerous. We don’t have to destroy the deep sea to get the minerals we need. Recycling and new technology offer a better path, and decisionmakers should take it before this sale locks in damage we can’t reverse.”

“For our people, the ocean has never been just a resource to extract from,” said Dr. Sabrina Suluai-Mahuka, founder of Finafinau, a youth-centered, environmental organization in American Samoa. “It feeds our families, sustains our economy, connects our islands, and is deeply woven into who we are as Samoan people. Deep-sea mining makes no sense economically, carries environmental risks we do not fully understand, and threatens a relationship with the ocean that generations before us have worked to protect. We are not against progress, but progress should never come at the expense of our people, our identity, or the generations who will inherit what we leave behind. Our opposition is clear: deep-sea mining is not the future we want for American Samoa. Ocean rights are human rights.”

Background

The sale covers two areas on the federal Outer Continental Shelf, about 16 million and 15 million acres (about the size of North Carolina), beyond the territorial waters where American Samoa banned deep-sea mining in 2024. It follows an April 2025 executive order on deep-sea minerals and a request from the company Impossible Metals to open leasing off the territory. The Marine Minerals Administration received more than 76,000 public comments on the proposal, the overwhelming majority opposed.

Mining companies are targeting polymetallic nodules and ferromanganese crusts in the deep ocean, the Earth’s largest, and least understood, habitat. The deep-ocean supports extraordinary biodiversity, from long-lived, slow-growing seafloor organisms that are highly vulnerable to disturbance to marine life in the waters above, including species that sustain important fisheries such as tuna.

Deep-sea mining could result in serious and irreversible harm to seafloor ecosystems, marine life, endangered species, fisheries, and ocean-dependent communities. It would destroy habitats that have developed over geologic timescales and could take centuries to recover. It would also generate extensive sediment plumes and toxic discharges that would bury marine organisms and threaten fisheries and marine food chains. Deep-sea mining would also create harmful noise and light pollution, release air and water pollutants, disrupt vital ecosystem processes and affect the ocean’s ability to store carbon. With adequate baseline information on deep-sea ecosystems virtually nonexistent, deep-sea mining risks driving species to extinction before they are even discovered.

While minerals are needed for the clean energy transition, viable alternative pathways to secure sufficient minerals supplies exist that are environmentally preferable. Recycling, reuse, innovation, and demand reduction offer less destructive pathways to meet our mineral needs.  

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Established in 1970, NRDC (the Natural Resources Defense Council) works to safeguard the earth, its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. Our team of more than 800 lawyers, policy experts, scientists, economists, and communications specialists work across the United States and around the world, from offices in Washington D.C., New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Santa Monica, as well as a representative office in Beijing and affiliate offices in New Delhi (through NRDC’s wholly owned for-profit subsidiary, NRDC India Private Limited) and London (through its UK-based partner NRDC International).