Two mining companies, the American Glomar Minerals and the Australian Cobalt Blue, have announced their intention to open a refinery for critical metals extracted from the seabed in the United States. The location will be decided by June and the work should take three years, with production expected to start before the end of President Donald Trump’s term in 2029.
One of the Trump administration’s priorities is precisely control over the supply chains of so-called “critical raw materials” – such as rare earths, nickel, cobalt, and copper, all essential for defense, electronics, and energy – in order to reduce commercial dependence on China. For this reason, the US government has decided to become a shareholder in several mining companies, to establish a reserve of critical minerals for civilian use (the Project Vault), and to propose the start of commercial cooperation on these elements with Japan, the European Union, and other like-minded countries.
THE UNITED STATES FOR DEEP-SEA MINING
In January, Washington also published a new regulation that halves the authorization procedures for companies intending to start extracting minerals from the seabed, the deep-sea mining. In April last year, Trump had signed an executive order to encourage this practice and – as the document stated – “revitalize American dominance over minerals in the seabed,” allowing America to drastically reduce its exposure to the Middle East for fossil fuels.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE GLOMAR AND COBALT BLUE PROJECT
Refining is the most “critical” link in the mining supply chain, much more than extraction, because factories do not use raw elements in their processes but processed materials. It appears that the Glomar Minerals and Australian Cobalt Blue plant will cost less than $500 million and will have an initial capacity of 200,000 tons.
It is unclear whether the two companies will receive public funding or if they have already signed supply contracts. However, Glomar Minerals’ executive chairman, Robbie Diamond, told Reuters that “submarine minerals represent a groundbreaking shift that will redefine the United States’ dependence on critical minerals, just as shale oil and gas revolutionized global energy geopolitics,” allowing America to drastically reduce its exposure to the Middle East for fossil fuels.
Cobalt Blue, currently also engaged in the extraction and processing of cobalt in Australia, will provide the technology for the refinery, which will specialize in separating the rare elements contained in polymetallic nodules, rock aggregates found on the seabed. The economic feasibility of this process, however, is still to be demonstrated because to date there are no polymetallic nodule refineries; processing these materials – as well as their recovery from the ocean depths – is technically complex.
The deep-sea mining industry is therefore very young, practically emerging, as is Glomar Minerals, which was founded only in 2025. The company holds exploration licenses in the Clarion-Clipperton zone, a vast area of the Pacific Ocean between central Mexico and Hawaii particularly rich in polymetallic nodules containing nickel, manganese, cobalt, and copper.
THE METALS COMPANY WILL ALSO BUILD A REFINERY
The Canadian company The Metals Company is also active in the Clarion-Clipperton zone and is the most technologically advanced deep-sea mining company: its extraction processes do not involve actual drilling but rather suction to the surface of nodules positioned on the seabed, collected by robots.
The Metals Company also wants to open a refinery on American soil, more precisely in Texas, but the construction of the plant will depend on federal funding.
THE GEOPOLITICAL CHALLENGE
The US regulation on deep-sea mining, aimed at accelerating the development of mining projects, is however considered controversial because it also applies to waters beyond national jurisdiction.
The United States refers to its own law, the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act of 1980, because it has never ratified the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and therefore is not a member of the International Seabed Authority, a United Nations-related organization that regulates mining activities on the seabed globally. China is the country that contributes the most to the budget of the International Seabed Authority and has received five exploration licenses from it, more than any other country.
