US plans auction of American Samoa waters for deep-sea mining

Federal planners have put American Samoa at the center of a possible deep-sea mining lease sale, with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management posting a page titled “Potential American Samoa Offshore Minerals Lease Sale” and publishing a Federal Register notice on June 16, 2025, for commercial leasing of outer continental shelf minerals offshore the territory. BOEM later extended the public comment period on the request for information and interest.

The agency has also said it has advanced offshore minerals planning efforts in American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Internal BOEM FOIA logs mention an unsolicited lease request for critical minerals in the waters of American Samoa and separate requests tied to a deep-sea mining lease sale offshore the territory.

The move lands in the middle of a broader federal push to secure critical minerals and diversify supply chains, but it also brings scientific uncertainty to one of the most remote parts of the U.S. system. NOAA released a news notice titled “NOAA to map critical mineral deposits in deep waters off American Samoa,” while NOAA Ocean Exploration materials describe work to improve understanding of marine critical minerals. Inside Climate News reported that NOAA began a $20 million survey of surrounding federal waters to help locate deep-sea mineral deposits.

Environmental questions remain central. A BOEM Studies Development Plan for fiscal years 2025 and 2026 says environmental research is proposed to begin in FY2025 or FY2026 to assess and manage impacts of offshore energy and marine mineral development on human, marine and coastal environments. That research gap matters because deep-sea mining could disturb fragile seabed ecosystems that are difficult to study and even harder to restore once damaged.

American Samoa carries a particular stake in the decision because the proposed leasing process sits over waters tied to fishing, tourism and cultural life. The territory’s communities have long depended on the ocean not just for income but for identity, which raises immediate questions about who is consulted before federal access rights are put on the table and who would carry the environmental risk if commercial mining moves ahead.

Organized opposition has already formed. Surfrider Foundation launched a campaign called “Stop Harmful Deep-Sea Mining off American Samoa,” pressing people to comment to the Department of the Interior, and Earthjustice published an explainer titled “How Deep Sea Mining Endangers American Samoa.” NOAA’s Pacific Islands fisheries materials and the National Marine Fisheries Service’s work in the region underscore how closely the issue is tied to marine habitat and fisheries management.

For industry, the opening could create a path to new access for firms such as Ocean Minerals LLC and Impossible Metals. For federal officials, it is also a geopolitical signal: the U.S. is willing to push into a contested frontier for minerals it considers strategically important, even as the science, the safeguards and the local consent questions remain unresolved.