What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push

May 22, 2025

In this insightful discussion, Hans Smith, President and CEO of Ocean Minerals, dives into the recent executive order from the Trump administration aiming to accelerate deep-sea mining. He explains the economic and geopolitical stakes involved, especially surrounding hotspots like the Clarion-Clipperton Zone and the Cook Islands. The conversation touches on the intricate legal landscape of international waters, the technical obstacles in refining polymetallic nodules, and the financial implications of these untapped resources. It's a fascinating look at the future of energy dominance beneath the waves!

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Trump EO Broadens Deep-Sea Focus

The Trump executive order spotlights deep-sea mining beyond just U.S. waters.
It encourages exploring international waters and other countries' exclusive economic zones to address critical mineral needs.

INSIGHT

Territorial vs International Waters

Territorial waters are under national sovereignty and laws.
International waters are regulated by the UN's ISA, but the U.S. hasn't ratified the treaty governing it.

INSIGHT

U.S. Behind in Territorial Mining

U.S. has scarce deep-sea mining activity partly due to regulatory hurdles.
Other countries actively pursue deep-sea mining in their exclusive economic zones like Japan and Cook Islands.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

In April, the Trump administration issued an executive order to accelerate the development of deep-sea minerals — part of its broader push for “energy dominance.” The world’s oceans hold vast, untapped deposits of critical minerals like nickel, copper, manganese, and rare earth elements — all essential to batteries and clean energy technologies.

Despite decades of interest, no commercial deep-sea mining project has begun production. The reasons? Regulatory uncertainty, environmental concerns, and the complexity of processing polymetallic nodules.

So what does this new executive order actually do?

In this episode, Shayle talks to Hans Smith, president and CEO of Ocean Minerals, a company participating in exploration of the Cook Islands. Shayle and Hans cover topics like:

What the Trump executive order mandates — and its legal limits
The bottleneck of U.S. deep-sea exploration
The controversy about U.S. legal authority over international waters
The economics and geopolitics of deep-sea hotspots like the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, Japan, and the Cook Islands
The technical challenges of refining polymetallic nodules
CapEx, OpEx, and barriers to commercial deployment

Resources:

Catalyst: Mining the deep sea
World Resources Institute: What We Know About Deep-Sea Mining — and What We Don’t
Reuters: Trump signs executive order boosting deep-sea mining industry

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.

Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a platform enabling solar and storage developers and buyers to save time, reduce risk, and increase profits in their equipment selection process. Anza gives clients access to pricing, technical, and risk data plus tools that they’ve never had access to before. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com.