WHAT IS HAPPENING:

• The US Marine Minerals Administration (MMA, formerly BOEM) has advanced the lease-sale process⁠ for deep seabed mining in our sacred waters surrounding the Mariana Islands, targeting December 16, 2026, for the auction. CNMI Governor David M. Apatang has 60 days to respond to the proposal. The deadline for his response is October 19, 2026.
• The proposed sale would offer five lease areas - two east and three west of the CNMI - covering approximately 67.2 million acres of ocean. The leases could grant private companies rights to explore for and seek approval to extract minerals from polymetallic nodules, ferromanganese crusts, and polymetallic sulfide deposits.
• This is no longer an early information gathering stage. If the federal government decides to proceed, it will have to issue a Final Leasing Notice at least 30 days before the auction, after which companies may bid for 20 year leases.
• There is no new general public comment period at this stage. The formal opportunity to respond is largely limited to the CNMI governor, despite the far reaching consequences for communities across the Marianas archipelago and despite the 60,000+ public comments received during the earlier process.
• MMA conducted an environmental assessment focused only on issuing leases and authorizing preliminary surveys. It did not fully evaluate the impacts of commercial mining operations.
• Deep seabed mining threatens ancient seafloor ecosystems and generate sediment plumes, toxic metal pollution, underwater noise, artificial light, and wastewater that travels far beyond the mining sites. Many scientists caution that the biodiversity loss from industrial-scale mining would be irreversible, with impacts to fishing, migratory species, food security, and biodiversity.
• The Marianas lease sale is part of a bigger federal push to open Pacific waters to mineral extraction. It follows a separate proposed lease sale near our sister island American Samoa, an extractive effort to industrialize our ocean without the free, prior, and informed consent of native communities who will have to bear the longterm consequences of these actions.

GOALS OF THE CAMPAIGN:

• Urge Governor David Apatang and Delegate Kimberlyn King-Hinds to use the formal authority provided under 30 C.F.R. § 581.16 before the October 19, 2026 deadline to formally recommend that the Secretary of the Interior:
  
  1. Suspend or terminate the present leasing process for the Northern Mariana Islands Outer Continental Shelf Pacific Mineral Lease Sale, PACM-2;
  2. Decline to issue the Final Leasing Notice; and
  3. Do not conduct the proposed December 16, 2026 lease sale.
• Urge CNMI leaders to publicly oppose the proposed lease sale, call for an immediate halt to all deep seabed mining plans in the Marianas and demand an extension of the public comment period.
• Secure formal resolutions and public statements opposing deep seabed mining from the CNMI government, municipal leaders, traditional leaders, and regional institutions.
• Demand meaningful consultation and the free, prior & informed consent of Indigenous communities before any decision affecting the lands, waters, cultures, or lifeways of the Mariana Islands.
• Establish long-term protections for the Marianas through a regional moratorium or ban on deep-seabed mining and stronger Indigenous-led ocean governance.