Deep-Sea Mining
Overview
Growing interest in mining minerals from the ocean floor threatens marine life throughout the water column. Oceana is fighting to stop the expansion of this destructive industry.
What Is Deep-Sea Mining?
Deep-sea or ocean mining is the extraction of minerals — such as manganese, nickel, cobalt, copper, and rare earth elements — from the sea floor.
Deep-sea mining targets three types of deposits: polymetallic nodules — potato-shaped lumps found on the ocean floor; cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts that form on the sides of seamounts; and seafloor massive sulfides found around hydrothermal vents. The United States is now also considering shallower, nearshore mining for heavy mineral sands.
How Does Deep-Sea Mining Work?
Many of the companies interested in mining the sea floor utilize different technologies to collect minerals. Mining crusts and sulfides involves removing the surface of the seafloor itself. Polymetallic nodule mining utilizes undersea robotic vehicles that move along the seabed, excavating the nodules. This impacts not only our deep seas, but shallower areas as well, through heavy mineral sands mining targeting nearshore deposits along continental margins. After being brought to the surface and separated, discarded material is then released back into the ocean, creating plumes that can smother organisms on the seafloor and throughout the surrounding waters. The minerals will then need to be processed on land. However, currently there are no adequate processing facilities anywhere in the U.S.
Watch: The Deep Sea is in Danger
Oceana Senior Advisor Alexandra Cousteau explains how deep-sea mining threatens our planet’s last, fragile frontier.
Environmental Impact Of Deep-Sea Mining
It’s clear that deep-sea mining is disruptive to marine ecosystems:
- Fifty years after deep-sea mining equipment was tested in the Blake Plateau, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found lasting damage to the seafloor.
- Sediment that’s dumped back into the water after processing could impact fish throughout the food web, including commercially fished species, as marine fish evolutionarily have lost the ability to cough.
- Sediment that settles on the seafloor could bury bottom-dwellers.
- Deep-sea mining changes the oceanographic conditions of these ecosystems, which can have impacts on deep water currents that are vital to dispersal and migration of marine species.
- Shrimp near hydrothermal vents suffered permanent retinal damage after being exposed to the bright lights of surveying vessels.
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Where Is Deep-Sea Mining Happening?
Currently, there is no commercial deep-sea mining anywhere in the world. In the U.S., the Trump administration is attempting to fast-track deep-sea mining and nearshore heavy mineral sands mining in multiple areas around the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.
The U.S. is also considering applications to mine in international waters, including in the Clarion–Clipperton Zone (CCZ) found between Hawaii and Mexico, and in the South Penrhyn Basin near the Cook Islands.
Mining in international waters is governed by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which grants exploration licenses to companies and governments, yet the U.S. is ignoring the international process and attempting to issue permits unilaterally. So far, 45 countries have pushed back against deep-sea mining.
Trump’s Deep-Sea Mining Executive Order
In April 2025, President Trump issued an executive order fast-tracking approvals for deep-sea mining in international waters and the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. The order ignores the ISA’s role in managing licensing for exploration in international waters. Any attempt to accelerate deep-sea mining without proper safeguards will only speed up the destruction of our ocean.
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