France and Germany set August deadline to fix fighter jet conflict
Germany and France are aiming to end a long-standing rift over their joint fighter jet project by August, as Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President E...
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at boosting the deep-sea mining industry, marking his latest attempt to boost U.S. access to nickel, copper and other critical minerals used widely across the economy.
The order, opens new tab, which Trump signed in private, seeks to jumpstart the mining of both U.S. and international waters as part of a push to offset China's sweeping control of the critical minerals industry.
Parts of the Pacific Ocean and elsewhere are estimated to contain large amounts of potato-shaped rocks known as polymetallic nodules filled with the building blocks for electric vehicles and electronics.
More than 1 billion metric tons of those nodules are estimated to be in U.S. waters and filled with manganese, nickel, copper and other critical minerals, according to an administration official.
Extracting them could boost U.S. GDP by $300 billion over 10 years and create 100,000 jobs, the official added.
"The United States has a core national security and economic interest in maintaining leadership in deep-sea science and technology and seabed mineral resources," Trump said in the order.
The order directs the administration to expedite mining permits under the Deep Seabed Hard Minerals Resource Act of 1980 and to establish a process for issuing permits along the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.
It also orders the expedited review of seabed mining permits "in areas beyond the national jurisdiction," a move likely to spark friction with the international community.
The International Seabed Authority - created by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which the U.S. has not ratified - has for years been considering standards for deep-sea mining in international waters, although it has yet to formalize them due to unresolved differences over acceptable levels of dust, noise and other factors from the practice.
Supporters of deep-sea mining say it would lessen the need for large mining operations on land, which are often unpopular with host communities. Environmental groups are calling for all activities to be banned, warning that industrial operations on the ocean floor could cause irreversible biodiversity loss.
"The United States government has no right to unilaterally allow an industry to destroy the common heritage of humankind, and rip up the deep sea for the profit of a few corporations," said Arlo Hemphill of Greenpeace, which opposes the practice.
Any country can allow deep-sea mining in its own territorial waters, roughly up to 200 nautical miles from shore, and companies are already lining up to mine U.S. waters.
Impossible Metals earlier this month asked the administration to launch a commercial auction for access to deposits of nickel, cobalt and other critical minerals off the coast of American Samoa.
Shares of The Metals Company - among the most prominent of deep-sea mining companies - rose on Thursday by roughly 40% to hit a 52-week high of $3.39 per share after the Reuters report earlier in the day on the executive order.
"With a stable, transparent, and enforceable regulatory pathway available under existing U.S. law, we look forward to delivering the world's first commercial nodule project, responsibly and economically," said Gerard Barron, CEO of the company, which aims to extract nodules from a vast plain of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.
Beyond The Metals Company, others eyeing deep-sea mining include California-based Impossible Metals, Russia's JSC Yuzhmorgeologiya, Blue Minerals Jamaica, China Minmetals, and Kiribati's Marawa Research and Exploration.
OTHER MINING STEPS
U.S. access to critical minerals - especially those produced by Chinese companies - has dwindled in recent months as Beijing has limited exports of several types. That, in turn, has ratcheted up pressure on Washington to support efforts to boost domestic mining.
Last week, Trump officials fast-tracked permitting on 10 mining projects across the United States and implemented an abbreviated approval process for mining projects on federal lands.
The administration also said it would approve one of the country's largest copper mines.
Trump's Thursday order uses the term "rare earths" to broadly refer to all critical minerals and is not meant to imply the administration believes the nodules contain neodymium and the 16 other rare earths, the administration official said.
The world’s biggest dance music festival faces an unexpected setback as a fire destroys its main stage, prompting a last-minute response from organisers determined to keep the party alive in Boom, Belgium.
Australian researchers have created a groundbreaking “biological AI” platform that could revolutionise drug discovery by rapidly evolving molecules within mammalian cells.
Australian researchers have pioneered a low-cost and scalable plasma-based method to produce ammonia gas directly from air, offering a green alternative to the traditional fossil fuel-dependent Haber-Bosch process.
A series of earthquakes have struck Guatemala on Tuesday afternoon, leading authorities to advise residents to evacuate from buildings as a precaution against possible aftershocks.
The U.S. economy faces a 40% risk of recession in the second half of 2025, JP Morgan analysts said on Wednesday, citing rising tariffs and stagflation concerns.
Inflation is when prices rise, reducing the purchasing power of your money. When it happens slowly, it’s manageable. But when it surges, it can disrupt savings, wages, business planning, and economic growth. That’s when central banks step in.
Spy cockroaches, tank-like AI robots, and battlefield drones are at the heart of Germany’s ambitious plan to reinvent warfare, as Europe ramps up defence spending in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The announcement triggered a sharp rally in Japanese equity markets. Shares in major automakers surged: Toyota rose over 14%, Honda gained 11%, while Mazda and Subaru both advanced more than 17%. Japan’s Topix index closed up 3.2%. The yen weakened slightly, trading at ¥146.8 against the dollar.
Türkiye has secured €2.4 billion ($2.8 billion) in green financing for a railway project aimed at establishing a direct rail connection to Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan exclave.
UK has announced fresh sanctions to crack down Russia's so-called "shadow fleet", targeting 135 oil tankers along with two Russian firms, shipping company Intershipping Services LLC and oil trader Litasco Middle East DMCC.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment