From BBC
Donald Trump has signed a controversial executive order aimed at stepping up deep-sea mining within US and in international waters.
The move to allow exploration outside its national waters has been met by condemnation from China which said it “violates” international law.
Thursday’s order is the latest issued by the US president to try to increase America’s access to minerals used by the aerospace, green technology and healthcare sectors.
The deep sea contains billions of tonnes of potato-shaped rocks, called polymetallic nodules, which are rich in critical minerals like cobalt and rare earths.
The latest US executive order was issued to “establish the United States as a global leader in responsible seabed mineral exploration”, it reads.
The move appears to bypass a long-running round of UN negotiations on mining in international waters.
Many countries, including China, have delayed issuing permits until countries agreed a framework for how resources could be shared.
“The US authorisation… violates international law and harms the overall interests of the international community,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Friday.
China dominates global production of rare earths and critical metals like cobalt and lithium.
Trump has been frustrated by this relative weakness of the US position, analysts say.
“We want the US to get ahead of China in this resource space under the ocean, on the ocean bottom,” a US official said on Thursday.
To achieve this, the order says the US will speed up the process of issuing exploration licences and recovery permits both in its own waters and in “areas beyond national jurisdiction”.
The administration estimates that deep-sea mining could boost the country’s GDP by $300bn (£225bn) over 10 years and create 100,000 jobs
The EU, the UK and others support a moratorium on the practice until further scientific research is carried out.
Environmentalists and scientists are concerned that marine species living
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