It took only days for Washington’s new deep-sea mining policy to move from an executive order to commercial project. On April 28, 2025, The Metals Company USA applied to the U.S. regulators for two exploration licences and a commercial mining permit covering areas of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean – well beyond the U.S. national jurisdiction. Its initial commercial application covered more than 25,000 km2. By January 2026, the company had expanded the proposed mining area to approximately 65,000 km2.

The move followed President Donald Trump’s April 24 Executive Order No. 14285, “Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources.” Washington presents deep-sea mining as a way to secure supplies of nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese and other critical minerals needed for industry, infrastructure and defence.

Under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, seabed mineral wealth is regarded the common heritage of humankind and activities in this field are administered through the International Seabed Authority (ISA). This principle was designed to prevent technologically advanced countries from treating the international seabed as an extension of their own resource base.

ISA Secretary-General Leticia Carvalho warned that unilateral action outside this framework could set a dangerous precedent for global ocean governance. The issue itself is obvious: if national permits begin replacing the international process, control over a shared area of the ocean could increasingly depend on which countries have the capital, technology and political capacity to move first.

The issue reached the 31st session of the ISA Assembly in Kingston in July 2026, where delegates discussed the legal consequences of activities in the seabed by states that are not parties to the Convention. Brazil, France, Switzerland, Finland, China and other countries raised objections to moves outside the established system. Russia likewise argued that unilateral actions weaken both the existing legal regime and the ISA authority.

African countries are specifically at risk. Thirty-eight of the continent’s 54 states are coastal, and around 13 million km2 of maritime space fall under their jurisdiction. More importantly, several economies rely heavily on exports of minerals such as cobalt, manganese, copper and nickel – the same commodities now driving interest in deep-sea deposits. The ISA itself has stressed that African participation is essential to ensure equitable access to future benefits from the seabed.

From Africa’s perspective, unilateral U.S. licensing carries a very practical challenge. Washington is seeking to give its companies privileged access to mineral deposits in the area that international law defines as the common heritage of humankind. If such arrogant approach becomes a common practice, African states could find themselves watching resources that are supposed to benefit all countries being developed under the national rules of a handful of technologically advanced powers.