The Trump administration just took the final step toward America’s first-ever auction of offshore mineral rights, and it’s going after the critical minerals Washington now calls a strategic asset.
On Monday, the Interior Department’s Marine Minerals Administration released the final notice for Lease Sale PACM-1, two areas off American Samoa that the Washington Examiner reported total nearly 32 million acres. The sale is set for Nov. 19, and the notice appears in the Federal Register today.
“Critical minerals are no longer just commodities; they are a vital strategic asset in global competition,” said Mike Olsen, the agency’s acting director.
From executive order to auction
The push started with an executive order Trump signed in April 2025 directing agencies to speed up permitting for deep-sea mining in U.S. and international waters, according to an analysis by the law firm Foley Hoag.
Things moved fast from there. In June 2025, the government asked for public input on an area east of American Samoa after a request from the company Impossible Metals. In February 2026, NOAA began mapping more than 30,000 square nautical miles of seafloor there. In July, the Marine Minerals Administration was formed by merging two Interior offshore agencies, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
An Interior budget document also lists the Northern Mariana Islands and Alaska as 2026 lease sale areas, The Guam Daily Post reported.
What winners actually get
A winning bid won’t put a dredge in the water overnight. The lease allows only early work such as mapping, the agency said. Before any exploration, testing or commercial harvesting, companies must clear “a multi-stage post-auction regulatory process.”
Olsen said the work must balance national security and energy readiness with “rigorous environmental stewardship.”
The China factor
The stakes reach well beyond one Pacific territory. Japan is pursuing its own offshore mining plans partly to reduce its reliance on China’s dominance in rare earth metals, Foley Hoag noted. Meanwhile, China, the European Union and the International Seabed Authority have all condemned unilateral U.S. seabed mining as contrary to international law.
Closer to home, American Samoa’s governor, legislative leaders and congressional representative opposed the plan, and most of the more than 75,000 public comments were opposed, according to Foley Hoag. Angelo Villagomez of the left-leaning Center for American Progress called it “out of step with what communities actually want.”
The bottom line
Critical minerals are the backbone of modern industry and modern defense. Japan is already moving to break China’s grip on rare earths. America can’t afford to sit on its hands while Beijing writes the rules.
This sale changes the posture. The United States is finally treating its own seabed as a strategic asset instead of a museum exhibit. And when Beijing objects to Americans developing American resources, that alone tells you the plan is on the right track.
The safeguards are built in, and the work is just beginning. But the message on Nov. 19 is clear: America intends to supply itself.