US Deep-Sea Mining Permits Could Arrive Within Months as China Mineral Race Intensifies

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says federal approvals for deep-sea mineral development could advance within months as the Trump administration moves to expand U.S. access to nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese while reducing reliance on China-dominated mineral supply chains.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.

The United States could begin issuing deep-sea mining approvals within months as the Trump administration accelerates plans to recover critical minerals from the ocean floor and challenge China’s dominance over strategically important mineral supply chains.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Monday that federal officials are actively working through the permitting process and that significant developments could be announced soon.

“Those discussions are going on right now,” Burgum said when asked when the government might begin issuing deep-sea mining permits.

“You’ll ⁠be hearing more in the weeks and months ahead because there’s some exciting developments that are coming on that front,” he added during the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Abundance in Houston.

Burgum described polymetallic nodules resting on the deep-ocean floor as a potentially significant new source of minerals required for manufacturing, defense systems, batteries and other advanced technologies.

“Those nodules that we just have to go out and vacuum up off the (sea) floor are filled with these critical minerals ‌that we need,” Burgum said.

“And of course, part of that is assuring that we’ve got diverse, secure, affordable supply of critical minerals.”

No U.S. commercial deep-seabed recovery permit has yet been issued, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA currently lists existing commercial recovery permits as “N/A,” while applications from companies seeking exploration and commercial rights remain under review.

The administration’s push represents one part of a broader effort to reduce American dependence on foreign mineral processing, particularly China. Beijing dominates the processing of numerous critical minerals and rare earth elements needed for electronics, military equipment, electric vehicles, magnets, energy technology and other products.

The administration has argued that seabed resources could help diversify those supply chains alongside expanded mining and processing on land. Trump officials have increasingly treated critical minerals as a national-security issue, while industry supporters contend new extraction technologies could provide the United States with access to deposits that have remained commercially undeveloped.

The competition has fueled growing interest in whether the United States can challenge China’s position in global mineral supply chains.

President Donald Trump formally accelerated that effort in April 2025 with an executive order directing federal agencies to streamline deep-seabed mineral exploration and commercial recovery permitting.

The order declared that the United States has a national-security and economic interest in securing mineral supplies independent of foreign adversaries and specifically directed the Commerce Department, acting through NOAA, to expedite reviews under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act.

It also ordered the Interior Department to establish an accelerated process for seabed development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf and instructed federal agencies to identify international partners interested in working with American companies.

One company attempting to use that U.S. regulatory framework is The Metals Company, or TMC.

TMC USA submitted exploration applications and an application seeking commercial recovery rights for polymetallic nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean.

NOAA is currently processing a consolidated TMC application covering both an exploration license and a commercial recovery permit. The agency published its latest notice Aug. 19 and established a public-comment period running through Oct. 19, with a virtual public hearing scheduled for Oct. 13.

That means a commercial permit has not yet been granted, despite the administration’s expedited review.

TMC says its proposed mining areas contain enormous mineral resources.

The company estimates that its USA-A and USA-B areas hold approximately 1.635 billion wet metric tons of polymetallic nodules, with another estimated 500 million tons of possible exploration upside.

According to TMC, those resources contain approximately 15.5 million metric tons of nickel, 12.8 million metric tons of copper, 2 million metric tons of cobalt and 345 million metric tons of manganese. Those figures are company resource estimates rather than quantities already proven economically recoverable through commercial mining.

TMC has said the “regulatory and strategic picture for deep seabed minerals in the United States continues to sharpen” as federal officials process applications from companies interested in the sector.

The company has said more than a dozen applications covering approximately 1.5 million square kilometers of seafloor have been submitted to NOAA by American companies, although TMC says the other applications primarily involve exploration while it is positioned further along toward commercial recovery.

The resources drawing that attention exist in several geological forms.

Polymetallic nodules are typically found loose on abyssal plains thousands of feet beneath the ocean surface. Unlike conventional terrestrial ore deposits, they do not require miners to dig through rock to reach them, though collecting them would require specialized machines capable of operating under enormous pressure at depths commonly ranging from roughly 2.5 to 3.7 miles.

The nodules can contain manganese, nickel, cobalt and copper.

Other potential targets include seafloor massive sulfides associated with hydrothermal systems and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts that form on underwater mountains and ridges.

Those deposits can contain copper, zinc, silver, gold, cobalt, manganese and other valuable materials.

The Clarion-Clipperton Zone between Hawaii and Mexico has emerged as the main focus of the polymetallic nodule industry because of the abundance of nodules scattered across vast areas of the Pacific seabed.

The race to develop those deposits is also creating an international legal dispute.

Most countries pursuing seabed minerals beyond national jurisdiction operate through the International Seabed Authority, the Jamaica-based organization created under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The United States signed but never ratified the convention and is therefore not a party to it. Washington instead has its own domestic legal framework, the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, dating to 1980.

Trump’s 2025 executive order instructed U.S. agencies to use that authority to process applications for areas beyond national jurisdiction without waiting for the International Seabed Authority to finish negotiations over a global commercial mining code.

The ISA maintains that mineral resources in the international seabed area constitute the “common heritage of humankind” and should be developed under an international regulatory framework.

China is one of the most active countries within that system.

Chinese-sponsored entities hold exploration contracts covering several types of seabed resources, including polymetallic nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, polymetallic sulfides in the Southwest Indian Ridge and cobalt-rich crust deposits. China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association alone holds contracts covering all three categories, while China Minmetals holds another nodule contract.

Japan, Germany, France, India, South Korea and other countries or their sponsored companies also hold exploration rights through the international system.

The U.S. decision to pursue a separate route has drawn objections from governments, environmental groups and some legal experts who argue that individual countries should not unilaterally authorize commercial mining of international seabed resources.

Supporters of the U.S. approach argue that Washington established its domestic framework years before the current international process and should not remain dependent on a regulatory system that has spent decades negotiating rules without yet authorizing commercial extraction.

Environmental concerns remain another major obstacle.

Deep-ocean ecosystems are poorly understood, and critics warn that collecting nodules could destroy habitats that develop extremely slowly, generate sediment plumes and disturb species that science has yet to document fully.

Supporters counter that seabed minerals could reduce reliance on land-based mining and say environmental reviews, monitoring and collection technology can limit damage.

The Trump executive order explicitly calls for accelerated permitting “without compromising environmental and transparency standards,” while NOAA’s pending TMC review includes an environmental impact process.

Washington is also looking beyond international waters.

In 2025, U.S. officials began discussions with the Cook Islands about cooperation on seabed mineral research and potential development.

The self-governing Pacific nation is in free association with New Zealand, and its citizens hold New Zealand citizenship. Its surrounding waters contain immense quantities of mineral-rich nodules, making the country increasingly important in the strategic competition over Pacific resources.

China has also strengthened relations with the Cook Islands, signing a comprehensive partnership agreement in February 2025 covering areas including infrastructure, trade, fisheries, hydrography and seabed mineral cooperation.

Those expanding ties caused concern in New Zealand, which maintains close constitutional and security relations with the islands.

Reuters reported that the Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority estimates approximately 6.7 billion tons of mineral-rich nodules lie within the country’s waters, potentially containing about 20 million metric tons of cobalt along with significant nickel, copper, manganese, iron and rare earth elements.

For Washington, those resources fit into a much larger strategy.

The administration is investing billions of dollars in domestic critical-mineral mines, processing facilities, battery materials and advanced manufacturing while simultaneously looking beneath the ocean for supplies that could take years to develop on land.

Burgum’s remarks suggest the seabed portion of that strategy is moving closer to a decisive regulatory stage.

The immediate question is no longer whether American companies will be allowed to apply for commercial deep-sea mining rights. They already have.

The question now is whether the United States will issue the first modern commercial recovery permits under its own seabed mining law — potentially opening a new industry in the Pacific while intensifying economic, environmental and geopolitical competition over the mineral resources at the bottom of the ocean.