US President Donald Trump is defying international norms on deep-sea mining, signing an executive order yesterday to expand the practice to include rare earth metals in US and international waters.
According to a White House aide, the initiative could allow US operations to extract more than a billion metric tons of mineral-rich nodules from the seabed, injecting hundreds of billions of dollars into the US economy, AFP reports.
But the move, which involves disrupting seabed ecosystems to extract cobalt and other minerals, runs counter to the views of environmental groups and regulations set by the International Seabed Authority (ISA).
Since the 1990s, the ISA has been trying to establish rules for the growing industry’s mining activities in international waters.
The United States, however, has never ratified the treaties that give the ISA jurisdiction and is not a member of the United Nations-affiliated organization.
Instead, the Trump administration is relying on a 1980 law that allows the federal government to issue permits for seabed mining in international waters, according to the New York Times.
The ISA did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
According to the order, the Commerce Secretary has 60 days to “expedite applications for permits for the exploration and commercial exploitation of seabed minerals in areas beyond national jurisdiction.”
Commercial deep-sea mining is still in its infancy, but given the global race for rare earth metals, currently dominated by China, Washington seems determined to expand its capacity to bolster its defense, manufacturing and energy industries.
However, environmental groups warn that the process could cause enormous environmental damage.
“The acceleration of deep-sea mining represents an ecological disaster in the making,” said Emily Jeffers, senior legal counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity.
She alleges that Trump is trying to open up one of the most fragile and least explored ecosystems on Earth to irresponsible industrial exploitation.
The White House said the stepped-up deep-sea mining policy aims, among other things, to strengthen partnerships with allies and industry to counter China’s growing influence over seabed mineral resources.
