Trump Administration Announces American Samoa Deep-Sea Mining Lease Sale

The federal government will be proceeding with its first proposed lease sale for mining the deep sea on American Samoa’s Outer Continental Shelf, a Federal Register notice announced today. The proposal would offer over 31 million acres for mining — an area larger than Pennsylvania — in a sale on November 19, 2026. The Governor of Samoa has a 60-day comment period to review and comment on the proposed leasing notice. Federal regulations also permit any other interested member of the public to submit information to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

“Fa’asao Amerika Samoa (FAS) is deeply disappointed that the federal government has chosen to fast-track this lease sale, ignoring the voices of the very people whose waters, traditions, and livelihoods are on the line. The ocean is not a commodity to us — it is the foundation of fa’a Samoa, sustaining our families, our culture, and our way of life for generations. FAS will fight this proposal at every turn, and we will not stand by while an untested industry threatens to destroy American Samoa’s environment and cultural heritage for corporate profit,” said Seumalu Elora Raymond, a spokesperson for Fa’asao Amerika Samoa.

This follows the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s request for information to allow seabed mining around American Samoa and is the first official scheduling of a sale in a series of seabed mining proposals the Trump administration has initiated across U.S. territorial waters in the Pacific, Alaska, and Virginia.

Scientists believe biodiversity loss and habitat destruction will be unpreventable and irreversible if mining were to advance at scale using the proposed methods to extract mineral deposits from the sea floor. Even if deep-sea mining were a better financial bet, the environmental devastation would be unprecedented.

According to one report, deep-sea mining could cause up to 25 times more damage to the world’s biodiversity than mining on land, resulting in $500 billion of lost value.

The following is a statement from J.V. Langkilde, Earthjustice attorney:

“Deep-sea mining has never been allowed in U.S. or international oceans. The Trump administration continues to bow to this untested, extractive industry and seeks to make American Samoa one of the first test sites. Deep-sea mining poses an incredible threat to ocean ecosystems that are central American Samoans’ history, culture, and day-to-day life. This proposed leasing notice and its stipulations — which reserves no share of rental revenue for environmental clean-up — make clear that the administration intends to bulldoze local outcry against mining in American Samoa’s waters. This race to the bottom won’t solve our supply chain problems. It will destroy an untouched seafloor millions of years in the making while threatening the health of those living in American Samoa.”