8 Aug 2011

American Samoa congressman pushes for seabed mining exploration in US

3:42 pm on 8 August 2011

American Samoa U.S. congressman Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin is introducing a bill to improve seabed mineral exploration and recovery in shallow and deep seabed areas of the U.S. including the territories of American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.

The proposed bill would authorise the Department of Interior to survey the seabed of these areas to identify possible mining sites and to undertake an economic feasibility study.

The congressman says seabed mining could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars from harvesting important minerals such as cobalt, nickel, copper.

Faleomavaega says it is disappointing that the US is lagging behind other countries such as China and Russia.