Proposed lease notice issued for seabed mining near Mariana Trench

 By Pacific Island Times News Staff

The Marine Minerals Administration today took the next step toward leasing the seabed off the Mariana Islands for deep-sea mining, releasing the proposed lease notice, which will culminate in the contract award in December.

The governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, the only official designated to provide feedback, has 60 days to comment on the plan.

"BOEM completed the environmental review of proposed commercial leases for critical minerals in the form of an environmental assessment pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act," the bureau said in a statement released today.

"The environmental assessment analyzes the action of leasing and authorization for preliminary activities," it added.

The U.S. government is forging ahead with the plan despite opposition from U.S. territories and environmental advocates.

“So much has been taken from the indigenous people of Micronesia since the arrival of successive colonial governments,” said Genevieve Cabrera, a spokesperson for Guardians of Gani.  

BOEM issued the proposed lease notice for the Northern Mariana Islands seabed following a similar proposal for American Samoa last month. The lease sale for American Samoa is scheduled for November.  

“As if World War II and its catastrophic effects were not enough, the Trump administration now wants to sell the core of our maritime culture, the waters of our lives and livelihoods, to the highest bidder,” Cabrera said.

“Deep-sea mining in the Mariana Islands, American Samoa or anywhere else in the world’s oceans is as lethal as the atomic bombs the U.S. tested in the Marshall Islands. For the government, this is about power and money. For us islanders, this is about our very lives and dignity,” she added.

Scientists believe unprecedented biodiversity loss would be unpreventable and irreversible if deep-sea mining—the process of extracting mineral deposits from the seabed and seafloor—were to advance at scale.

Environmental activists warned that if the proposed methods are used, deep-sea mining would cause habitat destruction and generate noise and light pollution, sediment plumes, wastewater, and residual toxic heavy metals that could drift far from the actual mining sites.

“The intensified rush for dominance and exploitation of resources in the deep sea absolutely guarantees an ecological crisis and permanent insecurity for our home islands. We vehemently oppose this colonial resource grab that desecrates our ocean and threatens sovereignty and survival for all future generations in the Pacific,” said Monaeka Flores, a spokesperson for Prutehi Guåhan. 

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Angelo Villagomez, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said the Trump administration’s attempt to mine the seabed of the Mariana Trench will only benefit far-off corporate interests at the expense of the islands’ residents.

“Any damage that happens from mining in this area presents permanent and irreversible risks to fragile ecosystems. The administration is again ignoring the overwhelming concerns voiced by the people and local governments,” he said.

“The Trump administration is asking us to hand over the most important and undisturbed ecosystems on the planet to an experimental, profit-hungry industry,” said Chris Eaton, an attorney with Earthjustice’s Oceans program. “We are prepared to fight for our oceans’ future in court.”

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