Companies join a #DeepSeaMining rush after Trump executive order, as regulators fast-track permits

Trump’s order suggests the U.S. will decide for itself when to mine the global seabed, reversing the decision of previous administrations to honor the seabed authority’s rules.

By HELEN WIEFFERING
Updated 3:11 PM UTC, May 22, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — "In the year since President Donald Trump signed an executive order promising to create a deep-sea mining industry from scratch, businesses have raised millions of dollars from investors, stock prices have soared and federal regulators have raced to fast-track a permitting process.

"At least nine companies are in talks with the government for access to seabed minerals, according to an Associated Press review. Sections of the seafloor from #AmericanSamoa to #Alaska could be auctioned for offshore mining this summer and through the fall.

All the action suggests the U.S. may soon give the green light for companies to commercially mine the seabed — something that’s never been done in international waters.

"But a close look at some of the companies involved reveals uncertain track records and histories spattered with legal disputes, while major questions about how the minerals would be processed and refined remain unanswered. Watchers of the nascent industry are skeptical the promised riches will ever materialize."

Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-deepsea-mining-executive-orders-oceans-environment-399faab6fc32922b4c533d3bad9c1ca5

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/MGqWh

#USPol #DeepSeaLife #OceansAreLife
#WorldPol #NoDeepSeaMining
#RecycleMetals #TrumpSucks #DeepSeaMiningMoratorium
#OxygenSource #Extinction
#PlanetEarth #LockheedMartin
#TheMetalsCompany #DeepSeaMineralsCorp #Allseas
#DeepSeaRareMinerals #BOEM #LifeOnEarth #Ecocide #PlanetDestroyers #HumanGreed #NoisePollution #SedimentPlumes #RecycleNickel #RecycleCobalt

#DeepSeaMining causes immediate loss of #SeafloorLife

by Eric Ralls, February 5, 2026

"Far below the ocean surface, the deep seafloor is often described as one of the planet’s least disturbed ecosystems. That assumption is now being tested.

"Companies are preparing to mine mineral-rich #nodules scattered across the abyss. The shift raises urgent questions about how quickly damage could appear once #industrial machines begin operating.

"A new field experiment offers one of the clearest answers yet. Researchers found that a single trial of a deep-sea mining collector physically removed more than one-third of the animals and species living directly in its path.

"The results show that biological impacts can occur immediately, not only after years of full-scale extraction."

Read more:
https://www.earth.com/news/deep-sea-mining-machines-could-erase-seafloor-life-in-hours/

#DeepSeaLife #OceansAreLife #WorldPol #NoDeepSeaMining #RecycleMetals #DeepSeaMiningMoratorium #OxygenSource #Extinction #PlanetEarth

#Oxygen discovery defies knowledge of the deep ocean

Victoria Gill, Science correspondent, BBC
July 22, 2024

"Scientists have discovered '#DarkOxygen' being produced in the #DeepOcean, apparently by lumps of metal on the #seafloor.

"About half the oxygen we breathe comes from the #ocean. But, before this discovery, it was understood that it was made by marine plants photosynthesising - something that requires sunlight.

"Here, at depths of 5km, where no sunlight can penetrate, the oxygen appears to be produced by naturally occurring metallic '#nodules' which split seawater - H2O - into hydrogen and oxygen.

"Several #mining companies have plans to collect these nodules, which marine scientists fear could disrupt the newly discovered process - and damage any marine life that depends on the oxygen they make.

"'I first saw this in 2013 - an enormous amount of oxygen being produced at the seafloor in complete darkness,' explains lead researcher Prof Andrew Sweetman from the Scottish Association for Marine Science. 'I just ignored it, because I’d been taught - you only get oxygen through #photosynthesis.

"'Eventually, I realised that for years I’d been ignoring this potentially huge discovery,' he told BBC News.

"He and his colleagues carried out their research in an area of the deep sea between #Hawaii and #Mexico - part of a vast swathe of seafloor that is covered with these metal nodules. The nodules form when dissolved metals in seawater collect on fragments of shell - or other debris. It's a process that takes millions of years.

"And because these nodules contain metals like #lithium, #cobalt and #copper - all of which are needed to make batteries - many mining companies are developing technology to collect them and bring them to the surface.

"But Prof Sweetman says the dark oxygen they make could also support life on the seafloor [and life on Earth!]. And his discovery, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, raises new concerns about the risks of proposed deep-sea mining ventures.

"The scientists worked out that the metal nodules are able to make oxygen precisely because they act like batteries."

Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c728ven2v9eo

#OceansAreLife #WaterIsLife #NoDeepSeaMining #DeepSeaMining #DeepSeaMiningMoratorium #Greed #DeepGreen #Oxygen #GerardBarron #DeepSeaLife #Extinction #DeadPlanet

🇪🇺 resolutions 2018 & 2022 on Ocean governance @europarl_en 🌊
#DeepSeaMiningMoratorium
@ISBAHQ
RT @CathChabaud: 👏 to our 🇫🇷 colleagues of the @AssembleeNat who voted a moratorium on deep sea mining as we did in the 🇪🇺parliament through our resolutions on Ocean governance! @europarl_en
Who’s next? 😉🇪🇺🌊

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/CathChabaud/status/1615725627457572866