SAIPAN — The federal government took its biggest step yet toward selling commercial seabed mining rights in waters off the Marianas, with the Marine Minerals Administration publishing a Proposed Leasing Notice Monday for a potential critical minerals lease sale in federal waters off the CNMI.
The notice outlines the terms and conditions of the potential sale, including the blocks under consideration, information for prospective lessees and proposed lease stipulations, the agency said in a release. The MMA said it has also completed an Environmental Assessment analyzing the potential impacts of issuing commercial leases in the waters. A Notice of Availability is set to publish in the Federal Register Tuesday.
“Critical minerals are essential to America’s national security, economic strength and resource sovereignty,” said Matt Giacona, acting director of the MMA. “The United States cannot afford to depend on foreign nations for the resources that power our economy and support our defense industrial base.”
Giacona said the agency is working to unlock the critical mineral potential of the Outer Continental Shelf “responsibly, transparently and with the rigorous environmental review the American people expect.”
The agency stressed that publishing the notice does not affirm a sale will be held or guarantee that any exploration or collection would occur. If the MMA decides to move forward, it said it will publish a Final Leasing Notice in the Federal Register at least 30 days before any sale date.
The notice is the latest acceleration in a process that has drawn sharply different responses from the region’s leaders. Governor David M. Apatang told the agency in formal comments that he would neither fully support nor fully oppose seabed mining, requesting comprehensive baseline environmental data, a full Environmental Impact Statement, clear economic benefit pathways and meaningful government-to-government consultation before any leasing decision. Guam Governor Lourdes A. Leon Guerrero, Lt. Gov. Joshua F. Tenorio and other Guam leaders submitted joint opposition letters requesting a halt to the process, and the Guam Legislature passed a resolution reaffirming the island’s moratorium on deep-sea mining.
The scope of the federal interest has grown as the process advanced. The agency’s March Area Identification decision covered more than 69 million acres off the CNMI, nearly double the roughly 35.5 million acres in its original request for information, after companies expressed interest in polymetallic sulfides west of the islands in addition to the ferromanganese crusts and polymetallic nodules first identified. Interior’s FY2027 budget justification anticipated holding a CNMI lease sale in November 2026.
The MMA was created July 10 when the Department of the Interior reunified the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement into a single agency overseeing offshore energy and minerals. The CNMI notice follows a similar proposed notice for American Samoa last month, which could lead to the first federal deep-sea mineral lease sale in U.S. waters.
Seabed mining has already surfaced in the CNMI’s gubernatorial race. Gubernatorial candidate Dr. Lawrence Fejeran Camacho said in an interview on Good Morning Marianas that he views deep sea mining as inevitable and said he backs Congresswoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds’ proposal for a 50-50 federal-local revenue split.
