U.S. President Donald Trump has issued an executive order to unilaterally open up mining of the world’s seabeds — a move that sets up a direct confrontation with several allies and opens a potential path for a Vancouver-based mining company to suck critical minerals off the sea floor.
The order, handed down Thursday, comes less than a month after the The Metals Company said it was seeking U.S. approval to mine polymetalic nodules in a stretch of Pacific Ocean between Mexico and Hawaii.
President Trump’s order says it seeks to create a “robust domestic supply chain” and “counter China’s growing influence over seabed mineral resources.”
But by aiming to unleash U.S. access
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