Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Cook Islands environmental groups have slammed the recent merger of an American minerals investment company with Odyssey, calling it "an industrial colonial takeover of our ocean".

American Ocean Minerals Corporation (AOMC) recently announced its merger with Odyssey, seeking to develop high-value, critical minerals from polymetallic nodules in the deep waters of the Cook Islands.

Odyssey Marine Exploration is also an American ocean minerals exploration company that acts as a technical, financial, and strategic partner to Cook Islands Cobalt (CIC) Limited.

According to the CIC, the merger is a positive advancement for the Cook Islands Seabed Minerals sector.

"It will ensure the continuity of the licensed exploration work, with significant investments planned for two of the Cook Islands mineral exploration license holders - CIC Ltd and Moana Minerals Ltd," CIC states.

"AOMC seeks to develop high-value critical minerals from polymetallic nodules throughout the world, including in the deep waters of the Cook Islands."

Ocean Advocate's Louisa Castledine said seabed mining remains an unproven, unconsented, and unendorsed industry.

Despite this, she said companies are already advancing development plans that bypass completion of any true precautionary approach criteria and any scientific grounding that SBMA (Seabed Minerals Authority) deems its priority.

"While [Prime Minister] Mark Brown and SBMA continue to suggest no decisions have been made, this merger shows that those decisions are, in fact, being shaped externally for our oceans, raising concerns about 'who is really governing our ocean resources right now.'

"This is not self-determined development; it is an industrial colonial takeover of our ocean," Castledine said.

Reuters reports that the deep-sea mining firm led by former Rio Tinto (RIO.L) CEO Tom Albanese would merge with Odyssey Marine Exploration in a $1 billion all-stock deal aimed at building one of the world's largest portfolios of underwater mineral deposits.

CIC Ltd states, "After extensive environmental research and eventual regulatory approval, these nodules could one day be harvested to support global demand for energy transition and technology supply chains.

"For the Cook Islands, this does not change the current status of seabed minerals activities."

CIC states that exploration work will continue under existing exploration licenses, and no nodule harvesting will occur unless further approvals are granted under Cook Islands law.

CIC Ltd and Moana Minerals Ltd would continue to operate in accordance with Cook Islands laws and regulatory requirements.

"AOMC has indicated that their investments in the two Cook Islands License holders will serve to provide support for future activities under the Cook Islands' existing regulatory framework, with a focus on environmental responsibility as well as further exploration and scientific assessment and review."

The combined company will trade on the NASDAQ stock exchange as AOMC once regulatory approvals are completed.

'WITHOUT DUE PROCESS'

Meanwhile, Castledine said, "US corporations, backed by state interests, are positioning themselves to control and extract our seabed resources without due process, in violation of responsible ocean governance or global consensus.

"These unilateral advancements compromise our sovereignty and autonomy, the very concerns we've continually raised. In a time of escalating global tensions, this push is not about our future but about foreign supply chains and strategic security advantage for other countries."

"Masquerading as part of a 'green energy transition, it ultimately serves external security agendas while placing the environmental and political risks squarely on our country and wider region," she added.

Cook Islands environmental non-government organisation Te Ipukarea Society (TIS) said, "The Cook Islands' resources are being used by these companies to attract investors into an industry that should never be allowed to start. It is all about the money. What about the health of our ocean?"

Reuters has further reported that the move "is just the latest in a slew of deals tied to the nascent deep-sea mining industry, which aims to extract critical minerals from the 70% of the planet covered by water, even as the practice has sparked outcry from environmentalists and some countries.

AOMC, which was formed earlier this year, aims to extract and then refine so-called polymetallic nodules, which are strewn across huge swaths of the Pacific seabed and composed of cobalt, nickel, copper, and manganese.

The company will absorb Odyssey's assets - which include an investment in privately held Ocean Minerals and its Cook Islands exploration license - along with those of CIC Limited, which Albanese chairs and holds a Cook Islands exploration license.

Reuters further reports that AOM said it had asked the US government for two international licenses in the Pacific's Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a step that puts it at odds with the International Seabed Authority.

US President Donald Trump, in January, said he would speed up permitting for companies aiming to mine internationally.

BACKGROUND

(Samoa News Editor’s Note)

American Samoa, under the Pulaalii & Pulu Administration, seems to have basically taken the position that it cannot stop deepsea mining around its waters, despite local opposition, but wants to make sure American Samoa gets a piece of the financial pie when it does happen. However, the Administration has not made public its official plans to deal with the issue.

Currently, NOAA is conducting a a hydrographic survey project to map and characterize more than 30,000 square nautical miles of federal waters in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) beyond the territorial waters of American Samoa.

The collected samples from the survey, according to NOAA, will allow for further analysis to understand the composition of deep sea resources and the environments in which they are found. 

The NOAA survey is part of a Department of Commerce initiative to implement the U.S. Offshore Critical Minerals Mapping Plan as defined by President Trump’s Executive Order 14285: Unleashing America's Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources.

In developing the mapping plan, NOAA, in consultation with the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) identified the federal waters near American Samoa as a priority area of the seabed for mapping and analyzing nodules that may contain critical minerals.