Second Deep-Sea Mining Lease Sale Announced Off of Mariana Islands and Guam

The Marine Minerals Administration (MMA) advanced the deep-sea mining lease sale process in the seabed off the Mariana Islands today. The administration’s proposal would hold the lease sale on December 16, 2026, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands governor will have 60 days to comment on the plan. This is the second Pacific lease sale the MMA has proposed, following last month’s announcement of a lease sale off the coast of American Samoa scheduled for November.

“So much has been taken from the indigenous people of Micronesia since the arrival of successive colonial governments. As if World War II and its catastrophic effects were not enough, the Trump administration now wants to sell the core of our maritime culture, the waters of our lives and livelihoods, to the highest bidder. Deep-sea mining in the Mariana Islands, American Samoa, or anywhere else in the world’s oceans is as lethal as the atomic bombs the U.S. tested in the Marshall Islands. For the government, this is about power and money. For us islanders, this is about our very lives and dignity!” said Genevieve Cabrera, a spokesperson for Guardians of Gani’.

Scientists believe unprecedented biodiversity loss will be unpreventable and irreversible if deep-sea mining — the process of extracting mineral deposits from the seabed and seafloor — were to advance at scale. Using the proposed methods, deep-sea mining will cause habitat destruction and generate noise and light pollution, sediment plumes, wastewater, and residual toxic heavy metals that could drift far from the actual mining sites. Destruction of the ecosystem surrounding the Mariana Islands also threatens local cultural practices that depend on a healthy ocean.

“The intensified rush for dominance and exploitation of resources in the deep sea absolutely guarantees an ecological crisis and permanent insecurity for our home islands. We vehemently oppose this colonial resource grab that desecrates our ocean and threatens sovereignty and survival for all future generations in the Pacific,” said Monaeka Flores, a spokesperson for Prutehi Guåhan.

“The Trump administration is asking us to hand over of the most important and undisturbed ecosystems on the planet to an experimental, profit-hungry industry,” said Chris Eaton, an attorney with Earthjustice’s Oceans program. “We are prepared to fight for our oceans’ future in court.”