US courts Cook Islands for deep-sea mining

The United States has begun talks with the Cook Islands for research on seabed mineral exploration and development, just months after the South Pacific nation inked cooperation pacts with China that included undersea mining.

The U.S. State Department announced Tuesday that the deal would involve mapping the Cook Islands’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), calling it “one of the most promising regions for deep-sea mineral deposits.”

The Cook Islands, a self-governing country in free association with New Zealand, consists of 15 islands and atolls located between New Zealand and Hawaii. Officials from the Cook Islands signed a five-year strategic partnership with China in February, covering cooperation in seabed mining, education, the economy, infrastructure, fisheries and disaster management.

That move strained relations with Wellington. In June, New Zealand suspended millions in budget support after the Cook Islands’ prime minister signed the deals without consultation. Under their constitutional arrangement, New Zealand and the Cook Islands are expected to coordinate on security, defence and foreign policy.

New Zealand’s foreign ministry responded cautiously this week, saying it was aware of the U.S. initiative and respected “the rights and responsibilities of states to manage their mineral resources.”

Geopolitical move

The U.S. push for seabed mining reflects a broader geopolitical strategy. In April, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to accelerate American licensing for deep-sea mining, describing it as a “gold rush” to counter China’s growing influence. The order marked a sharp departure from decades of US deference to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a treaty Washington has never ratified but largely followed.

Legal experts warn that the unilateral approach risks undermining global maritime norms. Trump’s order “could create both legal and diplomatic risks” and encourage other countries to expand maritime claims unilaterally, mining lawyer Scot Anderson at London-based Womble Bond Dickinson, told Mining.com.

Despite the controversy, the U.S. subsidiary of Canadian-registered The Metals Company (Nasdaq: TMC) submitted the first application to mine the seabed in international waters under a 1980 law within days of Trump’s order. This week, TMC released the first probable mineral reserves for its NORI-D polymetallic nodule project in the Clarion Clipperton zone of the Pacific Ocean.

Seabed mining advocates claim the practice has a smaller environmental footprint than land-based operations. Critics argue the science is far from settled. The deep ocean remains largely unexplored, and disrupting its ecosystems could unleash cascading effects throughout the marine food chain.