Growing local opposition to seabed mining decision has forced Cook Islands delay, says Greenpeace

APR editor — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 05:55:28 +0000

Asia Pacific Report

Greenpeace has heralded the Cook Islands delay on a decision over whether seabed mining can go ahead until at least 2032 as “evidence of the growing opposition” to the destructive industry in the Pacific.

Greenpeace Aotearoa campaigner Juressa Lee said the decision was “a win for the moana and the Pacific Peoples” and communities fighting against this emerging threat that would risk their way of life.

Resistance to seabed mining in the Cook Islands was strong and persistent, she said in a statement today.

“We are pleased to see that the government is feeling the pressure and acknowledging that a five-year exploration period is nothing more than tokenistic when it comes to understanding this industry’s impacts.

“There is no version of seabed mining that is sustainable or safe.

Lee said that alongside Greenpeace’s allies who wanted to protect the ocean for future generations, the environmental movement would continue to say “a loud and bold no to miners who want to strip the seafloor for their profit”.

The decision that companies wanting to mine in Cook Island waters would now have to apply for a five year extension to their exploration licences was announced today by the Seabed Minerals Authority, the government agency in charge of seabed mining in the Cook Islands.

Current licences expire in 2027.

Raising alarm for years
For years, multiple civil society groups in the Cook Islands have been raising the alarm about rushing into seabed mining.

Last month, Cook Islands activists confronted the Nautilus, a US-funded deep sea mining exploration ship, as it returned to port in Rarotonga.

Four protesters in kayaks met the ship, holding banners that read: “Don’t mine the moana”.

In September 2024, civil society groups came together to peacefully demonstrate community opposition to deep sea mining, with 150 people paddling out into Avarua port and floating a giant banner reading “Protect our ocean”.

Greenpeace is calling for a ban on deep sea mining.

“The current Cook Islands government is pushing seabed mining but we know that many people oppose this emerging industry that risks irreversible damage to ocean life,” said Lee.

“We’ve already seen evidence from a test mining site in the Atlantic Ocean that was mined in the 1970s and has never fully recovered.

Not be silenced
“Pacific Peoples will not be sidelined or silenced by corporations and powerful countries that continue to try and impose this new form of extractive colonialism where it is not wanted.

“Seabed mining is not welcome in the Cook Islands or the Pacific and we will resist.”

Seabed mining is an emerging extractive industry that has not yet started on a commercial scale anywhere in the world. Miners want to extract polymetallic nodules from the seafloor to extract metals.

Three companies — Moana Minerals Limited (a subsidiary of US company Ocean Minerals), Cobalt (CIC) Limited, and CIIC Seabed Resources Limited (a partnership between Cook Islands government and Belgian company GSR) — currently hold licences for seabed mining exploration in the Cook Island waters.

Exploration licences – Asia Pacific Report

Growing local opposition to seabed mining decision has forced Cook Islands delay, says Greenpeace