These developments reflect the growing prominence of this sector amid the global focus on critical minerals for national security and the energy transition. They also highlight the emerging tensions between private, national, and multinational interests that are playing out in an increasingly complex geopolitical environment.
International Seabed Authority: outcomes from the 31st session (Part 1)
The Council of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), responsible under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) for legislating exploration and exploitation activities in international waters, met in Kingston, Jamaica, from March 9 to 19, 2026.
This latest session of the ISA Council (Council) failed to deliver key outcomes that were hoped for. No exploitation activities were approved, and the long-delayed Mining Code remains both unfinished and deeply contested, with many key issues—including benefit-sharing, liability regimes, and environmental compensation—remaining unresolved.
Significantly, the Council considered the ISA’s Legal and Technical Commission (LTC) inquiry into potential non-compliance by contractors with their contractual obligations to act in accordance with the multilateral legal framework administered by the ISA. This inquiry was, in large part, triggered in relation to Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI) and Tonga Offshore Mining Ltd. (TOML), subsidiaries of The Metals Company (TMC), following TMC’s attempt to pursue deep sea mining under the U.S. regime, independent of the ISA.
The LTC inquiry addresses concerns with attempts to pursue deep sea mining in international waters “unilaterally,” that is, separately from the ISA’s oversight, and the implications under UNCLOS of companies bypassing the ISA’s regulatory regime by pursuing mining in international waters through a domestic regulatory process. The Council adopted a decision calling on the LTC to continue the inquiry, with a full report expected in July 2026, notably the same Council session at which NORI’s exploration contract is due to be considered for extension.
No further exploration licenses were approved, despite Impossible Metals Bahrain’s pending ISA application for an exploration contract in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ), filed in September 2025.
Impossible Metals has since also applied for exploration rights off the coast of American Samoa, an area within U.S. domestic legislative reach and managed by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, under the U.S. domestic regulatory regime.
United States: pathways for international and domestic U.S. mining and processing capabilities
International mining
At the same time, the Trump administration is advancing U.S. deep sea mining interests on multiple fronts. The U.S. is not a party to the international deep sea mining regime under UNCLOS. Rather, the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act 1980 (the DSHMR Act) provides the U.S. with a legislative framework to license deep sea mining extraterritorially in international waters, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) authorized under the DSHMR Act to administer the framework and grant exploration and commercial recovery licenses.
Under the authority of Trump’s April 2025 Executive Order No. 14285, NOAA has amended the DSHMR Act, establishing a consolidated application process allowing a single application for both an exploration license and a commercial recovery license.
On March 9, 2026, NOAA determined that the consolidated application submitted by TMC USA LLC (a sister company of NORI, both being wholly owned by TMC) for an exploration license and commercial recovery license—the first under the streamlined process—is in “substantial compliance” with statutory requirements. The application covers approximately 65,000 km² in the CCZ, with an estimated resource of 619 million tonnes (metric tons) of wet polymetallic nodules and overlaps with the NORI and TOML ISA license areas.
On March 27, 2026, TMC announced its fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results, reporting a widened annual net loss of ~USD320 million, up significantly from ~USD82m in the prior year, driven largely by increased royalty liabilities, rising exploration costs, and higher administrative expenses.
TMC’s stock fell roughly 6.5% in premarket trading following the announcement, reflecting investor concerns over escalating costs despite the company’s reported liquidity of approximately USD162 million at year-end. This is in stark contrast to the over 800% jump in its share price between January and October 2025, following Trump’s April 2025 Executive Order on deep sea mining, with TMC seeing a 46% increase in its share price on the day of Trump’s announcement alone.
Reportedly, U.S. company Deep Sea Rare Minerals (DSRM) also plans to submit a consolidated application to NOAA in 2026.
American Ocean Minerals Corporation (AOMC) has also made two exploration applications under the DSHMR Act, covering over 1.4 billion tonnes (metric tons) of inferred polymetallic nodule resources, marking another significant entrant in the U.S. deep sea mining space alongside TMC and DSRM.
On April 8, 2026, AOMC and Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (Odyssey) announced an all-stock reverse merger, creating a deep sea critical minerals platform valued at approximately USD1 billion. AOMC holds exploration rights in the Cook Islands’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and separately in the CCZ, while Odyssey contributes its Nasdaq listing and over 30 years of offshore operational experience. Unanimously approved by both boards, the merger is expected to close in mid-2026, with the combined entity to trade on Nasdaq as “AOMC.”
Domestic mining
Domestically, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the U.S. Interior Department bureau responsible for managing energy and mineral resource development on the federal Outer Continental Shelf, is advancing potential mineral lease sales in U.S. EEZ areas, including offshore American Samoa, Alaska, and Virginia.
On March 26, 2026, the House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on the Environment held an informational hearing regarding deep sea mining technology, featuring testimony from industry leaders and scientists on the potential for U.S. deep sea mineral extraction. Republicans emphasized the national security imperative of securing critical minerals and highlighted recent executive and regulatory actions to advance deep sea mining, while Democrats urged caution, arguing that insufficient scientific data and ocean mapping exist to support commercial-scale operations.
Domestic processing
Deep sea mining firm Glomar Minerals and Australia’s Cobalt Blue Holdings recently announced that they plan to build a U.S. refinery to process critical minerals extracted from polymetallic nodules, with a goal of reaching commercial production within three years, before President Trump’s term ends in 2029.
The facility is expected to cost less than USD500m and initially process 200,000 tonnes (metric tons) per year with expansion potential. Cobalt Blue will supply its proprietary technology to separate at least five minerals from the nodules, a processing challenge that no commercial refinery has yet solved at scale.
TMC has also announced that it is pursuing the potential development of a U.S. nodule processing and refining ecosystem for U.S. nodule developers, conditional on receiving U.S. government support. TMC has secured rights to a site at the Port of Brownsville in Texas and signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement with Mariana Minerals, which brings “an AI, software-first approach to the permitting, construction, and operation of critical mineral projects.”
Japan: rare earths and Japan–U.S. cooperation
Japan is accelerating its deep sea mining efforts as part of a broader strategy to reduce its dependence on Chinese critical mineral exports. In February 2026, the research vessel Chikyu successfully retrieved rare-earth mud from approximately 5,700 meters depth near Minamitorishima Island in Japan’s EEZ, with full-scale extraction trials planned for February 2027.
Separately, Japan and the U.S. signed a critical minerals framework agreement in October 2025 and, at the Takaichi–Trump summit on March 19, 2026, concluded a Memorandum of Cooperation establishing a Japan–U.S. working group on deep sea mineral resource development, covering cooperation on rare earth muds and polymetallic nodules. The two countries also released a Critical Minerals Action Plan focused on building supply chain resilience independent of China.
On March 30, 2026, Japan’s Deep Resources Development Co., Ltd (DORD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Global Sea Mineral Resources (GSR), the deep sea exploratory subsidiary of DEME, to conduct a joint demonstration test aimed at the potential co-development of polymetallic nodule resources within DORD’s exploration license area in the CCZ.
Under the MoU, GSR will provide its technical knowledge and operational expertise to support DORD’s program. GSR also holds an ISA exploration license for polymetallic nodules in the CCZ, and in 2021 became the first company to conduct a test of its deep sea nodule collection technology in the CCZ.
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