Highlights
- The USGS’s 2025 fact sheet provides comprehensive research on seabed mineral resources, highlighting their crucial role in technology, energy transition, and global economic security.
- Deep-sea mineral deposits contain essential elements like nickel, cobalt, and manganese, critical for electric vehicle batteries, renewable energy, and defense technologies.
- The research emphasizes balancing economic potential with environmental stewardship, using scientific data to guide responsible exploration and extraction of ocean floor minerals.
In April 2025, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released an updated fact sheet (opens in a new tab) that shines a bright light on the evolving landscape of global seabed mineral resources. This update underscores the agency’s expanding and critical role in understanding not just where valuable minerals lie beneath the ocean, but also how these resources interact with the broader marine environment and what risks and opportunities they may present for the United States and the world.
The USGS has long been a leader in seabed research, with its first forays into deep-sea mineral studies dating back to 1962. Over decades of work, the agency has built an unparalleled body of knowledge around how seabed mineral deposits form, how they can be responsibly extracted, and what environmental consequences might follow. With this new 2025 update, the USGS reaffirms its commitment to providing impartial, science-based information to help guide national and international decisions about resource use beneath the sea.
One of the focal points of the new report is the USGS’s three-pronged approach to seabed mineral research. Its Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program leads scientific efforts to map and characterize mineral resources like polymetallic nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts across the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic Oceans, and polymetallic sulfides, particularly in volcanic regions such as the Escanaba Trough off northern California. Meanwhile, the Land Management Research Program takes a hard look at the ecosystems that host these minerals, assessing how mining might impact marine habitats.
Finally, the Mineral Resources Program brings expertise in tracking mineral commodities and supply chains, tying seabed resources into broader conversations about U.S. economic security and global mineral markets.
The USGS stresses that seabed minerals are not just a scientific curiosity; they are vital to modern technology and the energy transition. Deep-sea mineral deposits are rich in elements like nickel, cobalt, manganese, and rare earth elements—materials essential for building everything from electric vehicle batteries to renewable energy infrastructure to critical defense technologies. Understanding the global distribution of these minerals, and the feasibility of their extraction, is key to securing a stable and sustainable future for industries that depend on them.
Importantly, the USGS does not view seabed mining through a purely economic lens. Environmental stewardship is a central pillar of its work. The agency’s interdisciplinary studies look closely at the potential impacts of disturbing the seabed, ranging from habitat loss to changes in marine biodiversity. Collaborations with regulatory agencies, such as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and NOAA, ensure that scientific insights inform policy decisions, striking a balance between the potential benefits of mineral extraction and the imperative to protect ocean ecosystems.
This April 2025 update also makes it clear that the ocean floor is vast and complex, hosting different kinds of mineral resources in distinct environments. Polymetallic nodules litter the abyssal plains at staggering depths, while cobalt-rich crusts form over millions of years on underwater mountains. Polymetallic sulfides grow near hydrothermal vents, in places where the Earth’s crust is most geologically active. Each setting brings its own technical challenges for exploration and extraction, as well as unique environmental considerations.
The fact sheet reinforces the USGS’s role as an honest broker of knowledge in this increasingly strategic domain. As global demand for critical minerals accelerates, driven by technological development and geopolitical competition, the need for unbiased, high-quality data on seabed resources has never been more urgent. By laying out what is known—and what remains uncertain—the USGS empowers policymakers, industry leaders, and the public to make informed, responsible, and forward-looking choices.
Ultimately, the 2025 update highlights that the story of seabed minerals is still being written. The USGS’s work ensures that science, not speculation, will guide how this precious and still largely untapped frontier is approached in the years ahead.
Seabed mining is rapidly becoming a critical arena in global resource competition, but it carries real-world economic challenges. High costs mean that, without strong government backing, private companies cannot develop deep-sea mining alone—public-private partnerships will be essential.
Even with immediate action, it will take 7–12 years before seabed mining can supply critical minerals at scale, making it a medium- to long-term solution. Geopolitical risks are also rising, as China already leads diplomatically at the International Seabed Authority, necessitating urgent U.S. diplomatic counteraction.
Additionally, projects without strong environmental standards could face ESG-driven investment blacklisting. Ultimately, the U.S. must combine scientific rigor with aggressive industrial strategy to seize this mineral frontier—or risk letting China dominate seabed resources just as it did with rare earths on land. Immediate, coordinated action is essential.
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