"President Donald Trump is considering allowing companies to lease more than 113 million acres of waters off Alaska for seabed mining. Alaska is the latest of several places Trump has sought to open to the fledgling industry over the past year, including waters around American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Like those Pacific islands, Alaska is home to Indigenous peoples with ancestral ties to the ocean, and the proposal is raising cultural and environmental concerns."
"Deep-sea mining, the practice of scraping minerals off the ocean floor for commercial products like electric vehicle batteries and military technology, is not yet a commercial industry. It's been slowed by the lack of regulations governing permits in international waters and by concerns about the environmental impact of extracting minerals that formed over millions of years. Scientists have warned the practice could damage fisheries and fragile ecosystems that could take millennia to recover."
""The terrestrial mining industry has not gotten it right with regards to Indigenous peoples," Finn said. "Indigenous peoples have the right to give and to withdraw consent. Mining companies themselves need to design their operations around that right.""
The administration is considering leases covering more than 113 million acres of Alaskan waters for seabed mining, adding Alaska to other targeted U.S. regions. Deep-sea mining involves scraping minerals from the ocean floor for products like electric-vehicle batteries and military technology, but it is not yet a commercial industry. Regulatory gaps and international permit issues have slowed development. Scientists warn seabed extraction could harm fisheries and fragile ecosystems that may take millennia to recover. Indigenous communities express opposition based on ancestral ties and consent rights, while policymakers push for U.S. leadership in critical mineral production, including in international waters.
Read at High Country News
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