Environmental Groups, Chiefs File Lawsuit As US Pushes On With American Samoa Deep Sea Mining Plans

Susana
Suisuiki Pacific Waves presenter

An environmental
group is challenging the United States’ legal authority to
sell seabed mining leases covering waters off the coast of
American Samoa, as the Trump administration pushes ahead
with plans for a deep sea mining auction around the Pacific
territory.

The US is proposing to lease more than 31
million acres of seabed, with the sale scheduled for 19
November. The decision marks the first time the US has
offered such leases and comes despite widespread opposition
from locals and environmental groups.

Fa’asao Amerika
Samoa co-founder Seumalu Elora Raymond told Pacific Waves
that the group is pursuing legal action to stop the
sale, warning it would become much harder to challenge the
plans once the leases are secured.

“I think every hour
we spend on this before that event is worth weeks and months
of effort,” she said.

“It gets so much harder to fight
this when there are so many fewer options once a mining
company has purchased parts of the seabed floor.”

In
April 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order
declaring activities in deep-sea science and technology as
“a core national security and economic interest”.

A
concurrent request was made by American firm Impossible
Metals to open leasing off American Samoa territory, amid
growing interest in the polymetallic nodules on the seabed,
including nickel, copper and cobalt.

On Monday,
Fa’asao Amerika Samoa, the Conservation Council for Hawai’i
and the Faleula o le Manu’atele council of matai filed
a new lawsuit – represented by Earthjustice – to block
the lease sale.

The groups argue the Marine Minerals
Administration (formerly known as the Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management), the agency overseeing the proposed sale, does
not have the legal authority to issue the leases under
treaty requirements that must be met before mineral leasing
can take place in American Samoa.

The new case follows
a separate
lawsuit filed in August by Fa’asao Amerika Samoa and the
Conservation Council for Hawai’i.

Seumalu said a
hearing in that case is scheduled for 30 October, with the
judge agreeing to an expedited process because of the
November 19 deadline.

She said a decision in the first
case could affect the government’s ability to proceed with
the lease sale.

However, it is not yet clear whether
the new lawsuit will be heard before the
auction.

Questions over US authority in American
Samoa

Seumalu rejected the idea that American Samoa
had little say over what happened in its surrounding waters
because the US controls the territory.

She said the
relationship between American Samoa and the US does not give
the federal government unlimited authority.

Seumalu
points to historical instruments of cession signed by Samoan
matai, saying the agreements established protections
for the territory’s lands and ocean.

“Anybody who just
assumes that the US can do whatever they want here is not
really thinking carefully about the relationship between
American Samoa and the United States and about the agreement
that was signed by the matai generations
ago.”

She argued that those agreements remained
relevant under US federal law and must be considered when
determining whether the government can issue the proposed
leases.

In 2024, American Samoa banned deep sea mining
in its territorial waters, but the auction relates to areas
beyond that limit, in the federally controlled Outer
Continental Shelf.

However, the groups launching legal
action argue that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act does
not authorise mineral leasing in any of the US territories,
including American Samoa, and that the agency is violating
its own leasing regulations

The group is asking the
courts to examine that legal relationship before the
November 19 sale
proceeds.

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