Washington/Sydney, Saturday 26 April 2025 — Greenpeace Australia Pacific has slammed Donald Trump’s support of deep sea mining as a ‘gross betrayal of the Pacific’ after the Trump administration signed an executive order advancing U.S. ambitions to launch deep sea mining in U.S. and international waters.
This rogue action is highly politically controversial for appearing to bypass the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the regulatory body set up by the United Nations to protect the deep sea as the common heritage of humankind and decide whether deep sea mining can start in the international seabed.
The Metals Company (TMC) – a deep sea mining company – recently declared its intention to work with the Trump Administration outside of the UN-established regulatory framework, to try to start mining in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the Pacific – a region that sits outside jurisdiction. The Executive Order instructs the Secretary of Commerce to expedite the process for reviewing and issuing exploration and commercial recovery permits under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act (DSHMRA), breaking the longstanding tradition of the US being a good-faith actor on UNCLOS (The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).
The order outlines that the Trump administration seeks to identify minerals for defence, infrastructure and energy purposes, and makes no mention of addressing the climate crisis.
Shiva Gounden, Head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “By authorising deep sea mining outside of international law, the Trump Administration is dressing up a disaster in a suit and tie, signing policies in boardrooms that will drown Pacific nations in financial, economic, cultural and environmental disaster. It’s neocolonialism with a letterhead.
“The Metals Company steam-rolled its way over multilateralism at the ISA and straight through the doors of Donald Trump, without a look back at the Pacific nations it is betraying. Pushing ahead with deep sea mining is a slap in the face to multilateralism, an insult to the UN’s regulatory body, and a gross betrayal of the Pacific.”
If approved, the plans could allow TMC to start mining in the CCZ – a region known for an abundance of polymetallic nodules – and threaten to derail years of negotiations between TMC and its sponsoring states including Nauru, Tonga and Kiribati.
“This move risks leaving Nauru, Kiribati and Tonga high and dry; TMC promised the people of Nauru jobs and prosperity from this agreement, saying that mining their waters would help fix the climate crisis. But it has taken the first chance it got to turn its back on Nauru and it will do the same to any other Pacific country. TMC is a money-hungry machine, using and abusing its Pacific partners without a care for the people, their cultural connection to the ocean, jobs, prosperity or the climate crisis,” Gounden said.
“Deep sea mining is piracy in policy – allowing governments to raid resources and leave wreckage behind. The Trump administration is looking for minerals to build weapons for America – not help the Pacific. This should be a warning to all Pacific leaders: the deep sea mining industry is not our friend, it is an industry of lies and betrayal. Pacific leaders must now unite to protect our Pacific Ocean and call for a moratorium on deep sea mining.”
According to The Metals Company, it will apply for permits “in the second quarter of 2025”, with reports stating intent to commence mining operations as soon as 2027. Gerard Barron, the Australian CEO of The Metals Company, has gone on the record with his company’s willingness and desire to bypass internationally agreed regulations, stating in reference to the ongoing negotiations at the ISA “by all means, go ahead and sign your treaty…we’ll be out there”.
Currently, 32 countries have backed a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep sea mining, including Tuvalu, Palau, Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Vanuatu and Samoa. Australia has not.
—ENDS—
For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Kimberley Bernard on +61 407 581 404 or [email protected]
Photos available in the Greenpeace Media Library
