Deep sea mining unnecessary, creates risks for centuries

WASHINGTON — The most remote reaches of the global ocean face threats from a new source: deep-sea mining. President Donald Trump’s executive order released Thursday, titled Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources, directs federal agencies to expedite the permitting and licensing process for deep-sea mining operations, as well as to work with other nations to support their mining efforts. 

Prior to this executive order, most of the world’s nations joined an independent agency that would govern mining in international waters. This agency, the International Seabed Authority (ISA), is currently drafting regulations around mining the deep sea. Member nations met in 2024 to discuss revisions to the mining code. However, the U.S. is not a member of the ISA. 

Last June, Environment America Research & Policy Center released a report entitled We don’t need deep sea mining with U.S. PIRG Education Fund and Frontier Group. The report detailed the risks deep-sea mining poses to fragile deep-ocean ecosystems and wildlife, and highlights the options available to reduce critical minerals demand through better product design, product repair and recycling. The world trashes more copper and cobalt – metals used to build clean energy technologies – in our electronic waste than miners would likely extract each year through at least 2035 from the central Pacific Ocean. The threat mining poses to aquatic life and unspoiled ocean depths underscores the importance of Right to Repair legislation and other initiatives that reduce growth in demand for critical minerals.

In response to the executive order, Kelsey Lamp, Protect our Oceans campaign director with Environment America, released the following statement: 

“There’s so much we have yet to discover about the deepest reaches of our oceans, where wild creatures somehow eke out a living. There’s hubris to the idea that we should permanently harm these deepwater ecosystems for minerals that can be obtained elsewhere.

“Instead of pursuing more and more minerals with little thought to the environmental cost, let’s reimagine how we put our existing minerals to use to reduce demand: building products to last, repairing them when they break and recycling them at the end of their lives. And going forward, let’s live simply and make prudent decisions. Destroying the deepest, darkest places in the ocean, and endangering the creatures that call these areas home, is anything but prudent.”