The United States to Issue Licenses and Permits for Commercial Seabed Mining in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction

President Donald J. Trump has directed the expedited review and issuance of licenses and permits for seabed mining in areas beyond national jurisdiction. 1Within days of the president's order, the U.S. subsidiary of The Metals Company (TMC), a Canadian deep sea minerals collection and processing firm, submitted applications to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for two exploration licenses and a commercial recovery permit for mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a 4.5 million square kilometer area of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico that is rich in polymetallic nodules. 2 This would be the first time that the United States has authorized the commercial harvesting of minerals from the deep seabed.The U.S. government's unliteral issuance of such licenses and permits would conflict with the International Seabed Authority's (ISA) regulation of deep seabed

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