According to a recent scientific report, minerals in certain regions of the Pacific are valued at trillions of dollars.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on April 24th to quickly track new industries, deep-sea mineral mining off the coast of the Pacific Ocean.
The order also directs the Department of Commerce, internal and energy secretaries to provide reports on private sector interests and opportunities in deep-sea mining of mineral nodules and “other subsea mineral resources,” and also develops plans to map priority areas within the seabed to “accelerate data collection.”
These nodules are abundant in the Pacific region southeast of Hawaii known as the Clarion Kriparton Zone, the report estimates at 34 billion wet metric tons. According to a Berkeley report, the metals contained within are estimated to be worth around $10 trillion.
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In response to the new tariffs, China has moved to block the export of important minerals to the United States.
Trump’s orders will increase America’s important mineral production, according to the White House. It will also allow private companies to bypass international submarine authorities, the leading UN-backed regulatory body that creates rules for submarine exploration.
Currently, according to Berkeley, its body is issuing a seabed exploration permit for deep-sea mineral deposits, but as of last year it has not yet issued an aggressive commercial deep-sea mining permit. Many companies are pushing for international submarine authorities to approve commercial mining in the deep sea.
However, according to a report by Berkeley, deep sea mining doesn’t come without prices.
Mining operations “can upset habitats for a variety of organisms and disrupt non-food chain-related interactions in deep-sea ecosystems, like the way organisms find shelter,” the report says.
Removing them could have greater environmental impacts on living organisms, according to a Berkeley report.
Trump’s order continues its administration’s efforts to increase the production and supply of U.S. energy and minerals, with previous order moving forward with the “Ambler Access Project” and commercial mining along 211 miles of industrial roads in northwest Alaska, rich in copper, zinc and other materials, the White House said.
