HAGÅTÑA, Guam — The federal seabed leasing notice for waters near the Northern Mariana Islands represents a significant new step toward mineral exploration and potentially, eventually, commercial extraction, the Office of the Governor of Guam said Wednesday, urging federal agencies to proceed cautiously and in genuine consultation with the people of the Mariana Islands.
Until now, the federal government had been identifying areas, gathering information and evaluating whether to proceed with a lease sale, the office said in a statement. With the notice, it said, federal regulators have formally proposed the terms for an actual lease sale that could take place later this year. The Proposed Leasing Notice sets a proposed auction date of Dec. 16.
The statement acknowledged the national importance of securing reliable supplies of critical minerals and reducing dependence on foreign sources, saying Guam understands national security and the strategic needs of the nation perhaps better than most American communities.
“But national security cannot mean asking the people of the Pacific to accept environmental risks before those risks are fully understood,” the office said.
The waters surrounding the Mariana Islands sustain the region’s environment, culture, food security and way of life, the statement said, and decisions that could ultimately lead to industrial activity on the deep seabed deserve extraordinary care, sound science and meaningful consultation with the people who live closest to the consequences.
The office was careful to note that a lease is not authorization to begin commercial mining. “But it is also not an insignificant step,” the statement said. “Once leases are issued and substantial investments are made in exploration, the pressure to move toward extraction will only increase. That is why the time to ask hard questions is before we cross that threshold, not afterward.”
The statement urged the Department of the Interior and the federal minerals agency to proceed cautiously, transparently and in genuine consultation with the governments and people of the Mariana Islands.
The measured tone follows earlier, firmer opposition from Guam’s leadership. Gov. Lourdes A. Leon Guerrero and Lt. Gov. Joshua F. Tenorio previously submitted joint letters opposing the leasing process, and the Guam Legislature passed a resolution reaffirming the island’s moratorium on deep-sea mining. In the CNMI, Gov. David M. Apatang’s statutory 60-day review of the proposed sale is already underway, with his office approaching the process “with extreme caution.”
