By Ernest Scheyder
(Reuters) – Deep-sea mining firm Impossible Metals said on Tuesday that it has asked U.S. federal officials to launch a commercial auction for access to deposits of nickel, cobalt and other critical minerals off the coast of American Samoa.
The waters around the Pacific Ocean territory are estimated to contain large amounts of potato-shaped rocks known as polymetallic nodules filled with the building blocks for electric vehicles and electronics.
The request from privately held Impossible Metals asks the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management – which oversees mineral deposits in federal waters – to launch a competitive lease process for the American Samoa nodules.
A BOEM spokesperson confirmed the request and said the agency will decide by May 23 “whether to initiate steps that could lead to a lease sale.” The agency has not held a competitive lease sale since 1991.
If the BOEM decides to move forward, the request would be put out for public comment before any auction.
Supporters of deep-sea mining say it would lessen the need for large mining operations on land, which are often unpopular with host communities. Detractors say more research is needed to determine how the practice could affect ecosystems.
California-based Impossible Metals said it has developed a robotic device with a large claw that uses artificial intelligence to distinguish between nodules and aquatic life.
Any country can allow deep-sea mining in its own territorial waters, roughly up to 200 nautical miles from shore.
That means that California-based Impossible Metals does not need permission from the International Seabed Authority (ISA) – created by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which the U.S. has not ratified.
Reuters reported last month that the White House is weighing an executive order to let mining companies that want to mine international waters bypass the ISA.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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