Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has defended the Interior Department’s move to consider mineral mining in waters offshore American Samoa. KHJ News Washington DC a correspondent Matt Kaye reports:
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum interviewed on Fox Business News said a proposed mineral lease sale in waters near American Samoa is both a supply chain and national security issue…
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(Transc.) Burgum: “China’s been active on three sides of American Samoa. China and Russia both leading the world right now in their activity around deep sea mining for minerals…and American Samoa represents a big opportunity. This is the Interior Department, we have responsibility for managing American territories across the Caribbean and the Pacific. And we’re putting out an opening to initiate the process to lease those ocean bed minerals.”
And what kind of minerals?
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(Transc.) Burgum: “Nickel, cobalt and other key minerals that we need for national defense. And with the modern techniques that we have today, you can mine these with robotic undersea miners. You can do it in a way that doesn’t affect the ocean or the wildlife in the ocean, the fish.”
Congresswoman Amata says she opposes use of current technology that “scrapes or vacuums or mines by digging the ocean floor.” And says American Samoa controls the three-miles closest to shore.
Uifa’atali Amata says the firm seeking the lease “Impossible Metals” testified at a recent congressional hearing that it’s several years away from being ready to use their “less disruptive technology.”
President Trump signed an Executive Order citing seabed mineral development as vital to US national security; and Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management received a formal request from Impossible Metals in April, kicking off a public input process.
