DEEP SEA MININGDeep Sea Mining is the New Front in Pacific Competition

We should have been thinking about the seabed, not so much the cables.

When a Chinese research vessel was spotted near Australia’s southern coast in late March, opposition leader Peter Dutton warned the ship was likely ‘mapping undersea cables’, and others expressed similar concerns. But in the subsea domain, exploitation of the seabed itself is fast becoming the frontier where influence will be exercised, rules contested and regional alliances tested.

Two recent developments highlight the rising strategic importance of the seabed, far beyond the narrow frame of cable security.

In February, the Cook Islands government signed a deal with China, granting licenses for seabed surveys. Weeks later, Vancouver-based The Metals Company (TMC) began lobbying the United States to bypass the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and issue permits for commercial seabed mining directly.

These developments reflect the rise of renewed great-power resource rivalry and the race for critical minerals, which underpin digital infrastructure and green energy.

Such unilateral and bilateral actions threaten international interests. Australia must engage with the Pacific to develop a comprehensive regional set of norms.

According to the International Cable Protection Committee, the long-term threat to undersea cables is seabed mining. Dredging operations, sediment disruption and mechanical collisions from mining operations can physically damage cables in ways that are often irreversible. The concern, then, is not so much that China is mapping cable routes—as most routes are already publicly available—but that it is using exploratory research missions to potentially lay the groundwork for future seabed extraction.

The ISA, established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), has yet to issue mining licenses but has granted dozens of exploratory permits. As its principal funder, China has steadily built influence over seabed governance, acquiring multiple exploration contracts through both international channels and regional partnerships. The Cook Islands agreement is only the latest step in a long-running strategy to secure access to critical seabed resources.

The US, by contrast, has refused to ratify UNCLOS or recognise the ISA’s authority. Increasingly frustrated with the ISA’s slow pace and growing support for a global moratorium, firms such as TMC are attempting to bypass multilateral oversight altogether. They’re citing a 1980 US domestic law—the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act—to justify Washington’s unilateral authorisation. The Trump administration appears receptive.

Reports suggest the administration of US President Donald Trump is now weighing an executive order that would authorise deep-sea extraction in international waters, outside the framework of UNCLOS.