American Samoa is one small part of a Pacific-wide and global conversation. Nodule fields exist in several oceans, more than a dozen countries sponsor exploration contracts, an international regulator is still writing the rules, and our nearest neighbours have already made very different choices. Understanding that context is part of deciding well here.
The map is centred on the Pacific, where the richest known fields lie. Hover or tap a marker for its status; the same regions are listed below.
Between Hawaii and Mexico, ~4.5 million km². The world's most explored nodule field.
South-east Pacific nodule field off Peru; studied since the 1970s.
The Indian Ocean's principal nodule province.
One of the largest estimated nodule resources in the world, inside a national EEZ.
You are here. Nodules confirmed; no leasing, no extraction, and years of study ahead.
Western Pacific seamounts. Cobalt-rich crusts, not nodules — a different kind of deposit.
A vast EEZ spanning the Gilbert, Phoenix and Line Islands; nodule potential in the east.
The CCZ lies in international waters between the Clarion and Clipperton fracture zones. The International Seabed Authority has granted exploration contracts across it, set aside protected areas around it, and holds reserved areas for developing States.
Each applicant proposes two areas of equal estimated value. The ISA keeps one as a reserved area that developing States — or the ISA’s own Enterprise — can later apply to explore. This is how Nauru, Tonga, Kiribati and the Cook Islands came to sponsor CCZ contracts.
The ISA adopted a regional environmental management plan for the CCZ that established a network of Areas of Particular Environmental Interest (APEIs) — large blocks closed to contract activity so that representative habitats remain undisturbed. The network was expanded in 2021.
The United States is not a party to UNCLOS and regulates its own activities under its own laws: the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act (administered by NOAA) for international waters, and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (administered by BOEM) for the U.S. outer continental shelf. That is why American Samoa’s process runs through BOEM rather than the ISA — see The process →
“Several Pacific neighbours are already running real exploration programs — either in their own EEZs (Cook Islands) or as ISA sponsoring states in the CCZ (Nauru, Tonga). This creates a regional first-mover dynamic that American Samoa must weigh carefully. If commercial extraction proceeds in the CCZ or in the EEZs of Pacific neighbours already advancing exploration, early movers may capture the first wave of jobs, revenue, technology partnerships, and regional influence — standing aside carries strategic and economic consequences.”
For balance: other Pacific voices — including Palau, Fiji, Samoa and several others — have called for a moratorium or a precautionary pause on deep-sea mining. The region is not of one mind.
Samoa Basin nodules are similar to western and south Penrhyn Basin nodules next door in the Cook Islands, with notably higher cobalt than typical CCZ nodules. What USGS found →
American Samoa’s process runs through U.S. federal law, with the Governor and the community — not through the ISA or a foreign sponsor. The process →
No commercial extraction is happening anywhere yet; ISA rules are unfinished; and a first lease sale (PACM-1) would only start years of study. Benefits & risks →
