Pacific Nations Split on Deep-Sea Mining as US Pushes to Curb China’s Critical Minerals Dominance

The ocean is an untapped source of significant mineral wealth, which often belongs to poorer nations, but extracting it has implications for the environment.

A photo taken on June 12, 2025, on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, shows polymetallic nodules, bulbous lumps of rock that are rich in battery metals such as cobalt and nickel which carpet huge tracts of Pacific Ocean seabed. WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images

Pacific nations are rethinking the deep-sea mining of their vast undersea mineral deposits, with some favouring environmental safeguards and others turning to Beijing.

It comes as the Trump administration is seeking to bypass U.N. regulations to accelerate deep-sea mining for critical minerals like nickel and cobalt, aiming to reduce reliance on China amid surging EV demand.