Former Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga has made known his opposition to conducting seabed mining within American Samoa’s 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone.
The former governor made his opposition known in a May 5 letter to Governor Pulaalii Nikolao Pula. He said he recently read that two off-island companies are preparing to approach the government for permission to conduct seabed mining within our EEZ. “This is very disconcerting and alarming,” Lolo wrote. “We don’t have any scientific information or data to gauge the potential damages which might be inflicted on our ocean quality and the impact on biological resources we currently depend on for our economic and social livelihood.”
He implored the government to tread “cautiously and methodically” on any seabed mining proposal within territorial waters. “We must be absolutely sure before we move to consider any proposal by first amassing scientifically generated reports clearly delineating benefits and costs embedded in this type of operation.”
U.S. company Impossible Metals is the first company to request a lease for the exploration of critical seabed minerals under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which is regulated by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Last month, President Donald Trump issued the “Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources” order, directing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to allow permitting for deep-sea mining.
The August 24 order directed NOAA to, within 60 days, “expedite the process for reviewing and issuing seabed mineral exploration licenses and commercial recovery permits in areas beyond national jurisdiction under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act.”
Impossible Metals’ lease request is supported by the American Samoa Economic Development Council, whose Executive Director, John Wasko, said, “American Samoa welcomes the beginning of a deep-sea minerals industry that will bring significant economic growth, support national security, and create jobs.”
There is currently a moratorium on seabed mining in the waters of American Samoa, which went into effect under an executive order issued by then-Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga last July.
