WASHINGTON — People familiar with the matter revealed that US President Trump's administration is drafting an executive order that will allow exploration of metal mineral deposits on the Pacific Ocean floor in an effort to counter China's dominance in the battery metal mineral and rare earth supply chain.

The Financial Times (FT) reported that metal nodules the size of potatoes formed on the seabed under millions of years of high pressure, containing nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese, which can be used to produce batteries, wires or ammunition. In addition, they may also contain trace amounts of rare earth minerals. These minerals may be included in the US federal strategic reserves after crude oil and metals.

The United States is seeking self-sufficiency in key minerals. The Trump administration has pressed Ukraine to accept a minerals pact, threatened to take over Greenland and annex Canada, and announced measures to boost domestic production.

Alexander Gray, an Asia expert who served as U.S. national security adviser during Trump's first term, said the White House's focus on deep-sea minerals made sense because China increasingly sees the deep seabed as "a front line in its economic and military competition with the United States." "More broadly, it is necessary to focus the U.S. government on areas most vulnerable to China's ambitions, as the Trump administration has done with shipbuilding and critical minerals," Gray said.

Building a national strategic reserve of "polymetallic nodules" extracted from the seabed would help the United States catch up with China in the global race to exploit resources on the Pacific Ocean floor. Beijing last week, imposed export restrictions on some rare earth elements in an attempt to use them as a form of economic coercion.

The establishment of these reserves is seen as part of a fast-track application mechanism for deep-sea mining under U.S. law and to build onshore processing capacity for metallic nodules, people familiar with the matter said.

Prominent Republicans, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Anthony Walz, have been advocating for this initiative while in Congress. Last year's annual defense budget directed the Defense Department to conduct a feasibility study on whether the nodules could be extracted for defense applications. "The motivation is not just commercial," said a House aide. "China has built up strategic production capacity for decades that could be weaponized."

According to the draft plan, these reserves would "establish a large amount on U.S. territory for future use" to prevent a conflict with China that could lead to restrictions on metal and rare earth imports.