President Donald Trump has signed a controversial executive order accelerating deep-sea mining in US waters and international seabeds, drawing immediate condemnation from China for violating international law.
The move is aimed towards breaking Beijing’s stranglehold on critical minerals like cobalt and rare earths by fast-tracking exploration licenses—potentially unlocking $300 billion in GDP growth and 100,000 jobs.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun blasted the order as harmful to global interests, highlighting tensions over untapped polymetallic nodules containing metals vital for aerospace, green tech, and healthcare industries.
The order targets potato-shaped polymetallic nodules lying 3,000-6,000 meters deep, but faces fierce opposition from bodies such as the EU/UK moratorium and Ocean Conservancy who are demanding for more research before extraction.
Industry voices like The Metals Company CEO Gerard Barron counter that deep-sea biomass is minimal compared to rainforest mining, claiming just 10g per square meter in the abyssal zone.
Why It Matters
Trump’s order circumvents ongoing UN negotiations about sharing international waters’ minerals, where China had supported delays. The gambit reflects the US frustration with China controlling about 90% of rare earths production, Beijing’s dominance in cobalt and lithium supply chains and the slow progress at the International Seabed Authority
With The Metals Company planninv to launch operations by year’s end, loose ends need to be tied.
Can the US bypass the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea? and how will China retaliate in trade or maritime policy?
More details to come later…
