Gold rush in the deep or a looming catastrophe?

Weighing the pros and cons of deep-sea mining in the Marianas waters

By Jayvee Vallejera

The surging demand for critical minerals—driven primarily by the global energy transition and digital technology—has fueled President Donald Trump’s ambition to outpace China in this emerging trillion-dollar industry.

The Trump administration has now set its sights on the ocean floor off the coast of the Northern Marianas near the Marianas Trench, nearly doubling the proposed deep-sea mining area around American Samoa from 18 million acres to 33 million acres.

As the federal government weighs its gold rush ambitions, proponents and opponents continue to debate the risks and benefits of extracting these seabed treasures.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has sent out feelers to obtain comments on leasing underwater lands off the coast of the Northern Mariana Islands for deep-sea mining. The proposed plan has triggered warnings from environmentalists about the potential damage to marine resources. Industry stakeholders, on the other hand, say cutting-edge technolog can minimize environmental impacts.

The bureau’s request for information about commercial leasing of the CNMI’s underwater continental shelf for offshore minerals has so far drawn about 880 comments. The Advisory Council of Underwater Archaeology has expressed numerous concerns, while ocean technology company Orpheus Ocean Inc. has promoted the capabilities of its autonomous underwater vehicles, which it says support responsible mineral development.

BOEM has extended the comment deadline to Jan. 12, 2026.

The Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology, an international advisory body, is urging BOEM to halt the leasing process for the CNMI, citing uncertainty about the science supporting the proposal. The group also raised the possibility that underwater cultural heritage lies unrecorded.

The council noted that a previous BOEM study found that the majority of underwater cultural artifacts in the Marianas and elsewhere in the region—shipwrecks, World War II aircraft losses, submerged cultural landscapes, canoe-voyaging features, and ancestral seafloor sites remain unlocated and

 unrecorded.

The council urges BOEM to work with CNMI indigenous leaders to conduct comprehensive archaeological, cultural and environmental research to fill these knowledge gaps. It also recommends evaluating impacts under the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and executive orders relating to tribal and indigenous consultations.

“Should these studies confirm the risks already evident from existing scientific and cultural-heritage research, BOEM should decline to pursue mineral development within the CNMI’s outer continental shelf to ensure the protection of irreplaceable underwater cultural heritage and the preservation of indigenous cultural lifeways,” the council added.

Thousands of residents across the Pacific—including hundreds from the CNMI—have signed petitions opposing this trajectory. CNMI leaders have warned that the impact of seabed mining is not well understood and requires extensive study. “Ignoring these voices would repeat a damaging history of dismissing Indigenous expertise and self-determination,” the council added.

On Guam, political leaders have taken a united position against deep-sea mining.

“Our ocean is not a commodity. It is our lifeline, our heritage, and our responsibility to protect for generations to come,” Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said after convening leaders to discuss their concerns about the U.S. government's deep-sea mining plan.

Deep-sea mining is ramping up across multiple zones, including the Pacific island region. Nauru, the Cook Islands, Tonga and Kiribati view seafloor wealth as their ticket to prosperity and freedom from foreign debt.

While there are currently no commercial operations extracting and selling seabed minerals, the region is polarized on the issue. The Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands have called for a moratorium pending a fuller understanding of the ecosystems that lie beneath the waves.

Around 16,404 feet beneath the northern Pacific Ocean, the seabed—stretching about 4,500 miles from east to west—is littered with potato-sized, charcoal-colored chunks called polymetallic nodules.

Market analysts estimate that seabed minerals are worth A$30 trillion, with significant deposits in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

According to BOEM’s solicitation, the target area is located west of the Mariana Trench National Monument along the eastern edge of the U.S exclusive economic zone. The area covers approximately 35,483,044 acres with water depths ranging from 3,700 to 25,100 feet, entirely within federal waters. The southern boundary area lies roughly midway between Guam and Rota.

“What we're giving up is protection and an environment that is clear,” Guam Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio said. “In the big picture, when we weigh the advantages and the disadvantages, I don't think we're going to find a clear advantage for the people of Guam and the CNMI in this effort.”

On the other side of the debate, Orpheus Ocean Inc. is positioning itself as an ideal partner for BOEM in exploring the CNMI’s outer continental shelf and gathering data for a possible seabed mining operation.

Orpheus operates AUVs for deep-sea exploration and data collection.

While the company does not sell itself as a mining operator, CEO Jake Russell said Orpheus has developed a new class of autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs, specifically designed to operate near and on the seafloor to conduct a wide range of scientific and commercial survey tasks.

Orpheus, a startup that designs and operates AUVs for deep-sea exploration and data collection, says it is “dedicated to advancing safe, efficient and scalable deep-sea exploration.”

Russell said Orpheus’ AUVs could provide the speed and scale of data collection needed to ensure responsible management of CNMI waters and resources. “It is particularly suitable for operations in remote and challenging environments such as the abyssal plains and seamount regions,” he wrote in a comment submission to BOEM.

Orpheus Ocean Inc. said its AUV was developed over five years at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It was first deployed in May 2025 during a three-week underwater expedition in the Western Pacific aboard the EV Nautilus.

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The vehicle conducted video surveys of the abyssal seafloor near Guam and the Mariana Islands at depths of up to 5,700 meters, identifying previously unknown deposits of polymetallic nodules.

“By encouraging or requiring the use of highly autonomous survey platforms as a best practice, BOEM would foster more precise resource mapping, better environmental safeguarding, and greater public trust in how mineral extraction is planned and managed in this uniquely sensitive region,” Russell said.

Tenorio, however, remains skeptical. “I don't think that our waters should be used as test areas for unproven technology,” he said. “There's a tremendous amount of environmental consequences in processing these minerals. This is a very dirty industry. That is how it is described in news reports, which means that the consequences for all the hazards derived from the processing—threats to our water sources because of the wastewater that it produces—all the things that these things could emit.”

The Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology cited research showing that waste discharge from deep-sea mining can significantly reduce food availability, effectively starving deep-ocean species that are foundational to 

wider food webs.

Seabed mining, the council said, is not a delicate operation. It requires direct mechanical cutting, suction removal and heavy robotic equipment that will operate on steep slopes and seamount surfaces. These activities churn up deposits of mud and other debris from the seabed, creating plumes that could transport abrasive particles many kilometers and pose a threat to WWII-era artifacts.

Disturbing underwater sediment could also hasten the corrosion of iron, steel, aluminum and copper-alloy materials in shipwrecks and aircraft. Many of these relics are already in advanced stages of deterioration, and altering the

geochemical conditions underwater could further damage them.

Sediment plumes could also destabilize fragile layers of debris that act to preserve artifacts and structural outlines, the council said, and may bury or 

displace archaeological sites, artifacts, human remains and preserved cultural layers. “Because nearly all deep-water underwater cultural heritage in the CNMI

has not yet been mapped, these impacts are likely to be undetected until after irreversible damage has occurred,” the council said.

Dr. Philippa Louey, a research fellow at the Pacific Security College, recognizes that the march toward deep-sea mining is unstoppable at this point, underscoring the need to balance demand with environmental protection.

Louey authored a new paper urging Pacific island nations to create an “underwater constitution” to regulate resource extraction, safeguard sovereignty and ensure that these countries share in ocean-generated wealth.       

The paper, titled “United We Stand, Divided We Fall,” argues for a practical approach in the face of a rush for Pacific seabed resources, helping countries agree on shared principles and guide future cooperation on sustainable seabed development.

Louey noted that deep-sea activities in the Pacific have already accelerated to the point where clear governance frameworks are urgently needed.

“Activity in the deep sea is increasing significantly, from new submarine cables to growing interest in deep-sea minerals and organisms that could unlock breakthroughs in medicine, technology, and agriculture,” she said in a news release. “We’re seeing new and re-energized players coming into the Pacific, all looking for access to seabed resources.”

Louey makes the case that the region should first focus on common values rather than on a single “for” or “against” stance on seabed mining.

While each Pacific country may already have rules governing seabed management, Louey said these are insufficient. “We need to think beyond borders and work together on a regional approach.”

(With additional reports from Mar-Vic Cagurangan)

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