Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The US Department of the Interior (DOI), has requested an addition $4 million in its 2027 budget for a “critical mineral leasing” project.

DOI which oversees the country’s domestic deep sea mining plans, has released a timeline for issuing the first deep sea mineral leases in the waters of US territories and states.

Those first planned lease sales are for the seabed of American Samoa in August 2026, the Northern Mariana Islands in November 2026, and Alaska in December 2026.

A mineral lease doesn’t guarantee that mining will happen. But it is a first step toward mining the seabed. Once a lease is issued, companies can submit plans for exploration, testing, and actual mining in the lease area. Each plan must be approved by the federal government before it can move forward.

So far, proposals to consider deep sea mining in these areas have been met with significant criticism from the local public, politicians, and institutions. (A few, like the city government of Nome in Alaska, have stated support for deep sea mining, but they’re far outnumbered by the opposition.)

Still, this new schedule suggests that the US federal government is wasting no time on executing its deep sea mining plans.

The budget justification adds that the new funds would also go toward mineral mapping led by the US government, shouldering some of the burden often carried by companies to determine where deep sea mining could be profitable.

The document further states that funds would support “tribal, and Pacific Islander outreach” – but only after lease sales commence

“[Deep sea mining] projects are expected to create skilled jobs in the region, supporting local workforces, and diversify territorial economies featuring an overreliance on industries like tuna canning,” it says.

Still, it’s not yet clear whether these benefits would actually materialize. For example, there’s no guarantee that onshore infrastructure such as mineral processing plants – and thus jobs – will be based in the territories where mining occurs.

The DOI agency in charge of these domestic deep sea mining plans was long known as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. However, it’s now the Marine Minerals Administration.

BACKGROUND

 In 1982, the DOI established the Minerals Management Service (MMS) to oversee offshore energy and mineral leases. While commercial deep sea mining never occurred (and still hasn’t), the MMS was in charge of any potential deep sea mining, plus nearshore seabed mining, and oil and gas production.

Then, in 2010, the immense Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. Afterward, scrutiny revealed that the MMS was rife with conflicts of interest and regulatory weaknesses, making environmental disasters more likely.

So the MMS was split up. Three new agencies resulted: the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), and the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR).

The aim was to reduce problems by separating out potentially-conflicting activities, such as commercial leasing and environmental oversight.

Now, the Marine Minerals Administration recombines BOEM and BSEE into a single agency, in charge of leasing both nearshore and deep seabed mining and oil and gas extraction, and of the oversight of these industries.

“These unification efforts will streamline bureaucracy,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum at a government budget hearing.

(Source: DOI press release)