By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
THE Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has taken a major step toward opening waters around Guam and the Northern Marianas to potential deep-sea mining. The move advances the agency’s outer continental shelf mineral leasing process, despite widespread public opposition, according to Angelo Villagomez, senior fellow for conservation policy at the Center for American Progress.
On Wednesday, BOEM announced it had completed the Area Identification, or Area ID, phase for possible critical mineral development offshore the CNMI. The decision doubles the offshore area under consideration — from 35 million acres to 69 million acres, roughly the size of Nevada — even after the agency received more than 65,000 comments opposing the proposal.
Villagomez criticized the move, saying it disregards the concerns of residents and territorial leaders.
“This decision to advance the largest seabed mining proposal in U.S. history ignores the overwhelming concerns voiced by the people and local governments,” he said. “It pushes forward an industrial experiment in one of the most biodiverse and culturally significant ocean regions on Earth. Deep-sea mining poses irreversible risks to fragile ecosystems, fisheries that sustain our communities, and the cultural heritage of the Chamorro and Refaluwasch peoples. This decision ignores baseline science and was made without meaningful consultation or any guarantee that the Indigenous peoples most affected would even be protected, let alone see benefits.”
BOEM emphasized that the Area ID determination does not authorize leasing or mineral development. Instead, it identifies which offshore tracts will move forward for further analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act.
The Area ID follows BOEM’s Nov. 12, 2025, Request for Information and Interest, which drew tens of thousands of submissions from residents, Indigenous communities, territorial governments, industry groups, and environmental organizations. Comments revealed strong regional skepticism, firm opposition from Guam’s elected leaders, and conditional caution from the CNMI. Environmental, cultural, and economic concerns dominated the feedback, with many urging that no leasing occur without rigorous scientific study, regional coordination, and meaningful community engagement.
With the Area ID complete, BOEM will now prepare an Environmental Assessment to evaluate the potential impacts of issuing leases and authorizing early-stage activities such as bathymetric mapping, geological and geophysical surveys, and limited seabed and biological sampling. The agency said these activities are considered to have no significant adverse impact and are intended to inform any future delineation, testing, or mining plan.
The environmental review will include consultations required under federal law, including Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, to assess potential effects on cultural and historic resources.
BOEM reiterated that any future lease would authorize only data collection — not mineral extraction — and said it remains committed to a science-based process that incorporates local knowledge and prioritizes environmental protection while evaluating potential domestic sources of critical minerals important to national security and advanced manufacturing.
Bryan Manabat was a liberal arts student of Northern Marianas College where he also studied criminal justice. He is the recipient of the NMI Humanities Award as an Outstanding Teacher (Non-Classroom) in 2013, and has worked for the CNMI Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program as lead facilitator.
