NOAA to Map Critical Minerals Offshore American Samoa
Polymetallic nodules, such as those shown here, can occur on the ocean floor and are of interest for the critical minerals they contain. Credit: NOAA.
NOAA’s National Ocean Service announced a new hydrographic survey project to map and characterize more than 30,000 square nautical miles of federal waters off American Samoa. This project is part of the Department of Commerce's implementation of the U.S. Offshore Critical Minerals Mapping Plan as defined by President Trump’s Executive Order 14285: Unleashing America's Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources.
NOAA contractor NV5, a current hydrographic survey services vendor, will begin survey work in February 2026.
NOAA will use approximately $20 million of fiscal year 2025 funding to produce publicly accessible maps, images and samples of the marine environment off the coast of American Samoa. These products will serve to inform NOAA, other federal agencies and interested parties of the critical mineral deposits and relative prospectivity of the surveyed area. This effort will generate high-quality and transparent deep-ocean data that will help to increase the baseline understanding of the federal waters off American Samoa’s deep-ocean environment, and will stimulate further exploration, research and management projects, including activities related to deep sea minerals.
December 2025
