By Susana Suisuiki of RNZ Pacific
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 12.5 million hectares of seabed, with the sale scheduled for November 19. 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 RNZ 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.
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“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.
Filed new lawsuit
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 October 30, 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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