Two American companies want permission to explore the seafloor in international waters of the South Pacific, and the proposal has drawn objections from officials and conservation groups in the region. The applications would allow survey work near the Cook Islands, Kiribati and French Polynesia, areas known for their white sand beaches and lagoons. ([1])The filings matter now because they test a US permitting route that operates outside the multilateral system most countries rely on for ocean mining.
Two applications, two large seabed areas
The applicants are Delaware-incorporated American Deep Sea Minerals, Inc. and Florida-based American Ocean Minerals Corporation. Both have asked the US government to let them explore the seabed for its mining potential, with the aim of eventually extracting and selling minerals. Their plans cover two separate zones:
- A pocket of international waters of about 101,064 square kilometers, bordered by the exclusive economic zones of the Cook Islands, Kiribati and French Polynesia.
- An area of about 89,645 square kilometers south of the Cook Islands’ exclusive economic zone.
Those areas hold polymetallic nodules, potato-sized lumps of ore that contain nickel, manganese, copper and cobalt. Nodules of this kind are the reason miners are interested in the seabed, and they also explain why nearby governments are watching closely.
An application is not an authorization. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has determined that one filing meets the information requirements to move through its assessment process, but the agency has not approved an exploration license or a commercial mining permit. (2) Recent US action on this front has been about process, not extraction.
Why the US route is controversial
The applications rely on the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, a 1980 law that lets US entities seek permits to explore and recover minerals beyond national jurisdiction. (2) Critics argue that the law sidesteps the International Seabed Authority, the body that oversees mining in international waters under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Congressional Research Service notes that (3) NOAA revised its seabed mining rules in January 2026 to create a consolidated application process.
Supporters of the approach see it as a way to secure minerals outside the slow international talks. Opponents counter that the process could erode the rules that protect the wider ocean. Scientists, they say, still know little about deep sea species, microbial communities and how long ecosystems take to recover from disturbance. Those gaps, critics argue, make commercial extraction premature.
Pushback from islands and conservation groups
The Cook Islands environmental group Te Ipukarea Society has argued that a United States permit would not directly remove the Cook Islands’ sovereign rights within its own waters. The group warned, however, that such a permit (4) could weaken the international rules-based system that helps protect those rights. The group also maintains that deep sea mining should not proceed and supports calls for a global moratorium or precautionary pause.
French Polynesia has taken a similar stance from a different angle. Its government said it was not consulted in a meaningful way about a plan affecting waters bordering its territory. If the American application advances, Paris and Papeete have made clear that they want a say in the outcome and a thorough environmental review. The American company would need to carry out scientific studies of the area and prepare an environmental impact assessment before any further step.
The Cook Islands’ position is more complicated. The government has signed a critical minerals framework with Washington, and it says that agreement is not a mining license and does not commit the country to extraction. Regional critics have described the deal as an opening for the United States to influence the Cook Islands’ domestic decisions on seabed mining.
What matters now: the applications are pending, no exploration license or mining permit has been approved, and the Cook Islands government has not decided whether commercial mining will proceed in its own waters.
What comes next
The public comment window on the NOAA process closed in October, and the agency will weigh the record before any decision. Recent reporting indicates that the Cook Islands has extended its own exploration phase, and no commercial mining decision is expected there before 2032. (5) That timeline gives island governments, scientists and regional bodies time to press their case.
For now, the dispute is less about a mine than about who sets the rules for the open ocean. The outcome could shape how Pacific nations defend their waters and how far unilateral national permits can reach beyond national borders. Whatever the NOAA decision, the question of who speaks for the Pacific seabed is already on the table.
