RAROTONGA, Cook Islands—In October, a U.S. research vessel arrived in this remote South Pacific nation to capture high-definition images of the seafloor. A few weeks later, a Chinese ship arrived to do the same thing.
The visits marked the opening of an unexpected new front in the rivalry between the U.S. and China over the world’s mineral resources.
Both countries want to unlock new deposits of rare earths, which are essential to make cars, jet fighters and other products, as well as other strategic minerals needed for products such as batteries. China currently controls around 90% of the world’s refined supply of rare earths, giving it significant leverage over the U.S.
South Pacific nations have large offshore mineral deposits—and they have never been touched.
While prospectors have long proposed mining the ocean floor, much like oil companies drill offshore, such efforts have come to nothing. The costs and environmental damage of ripping up the seabed are expected to be high.
But now, U.S.-China competition is putting offshore mining back in the spotlight. Places such as the Cook Islands are doing everything they can to play the two sides off against one another.
Earlier this year, the island nation reached a controversial deal with China in which it offered to let it explore the seafloor around its territory in return for investments in infrastructure and its fishing industry. Although the existence of a deal was made public, some details were initially kept secret, drawing protests from locals and some regional leaders.
Beijing promptly whisked Cook Islands leaders off to China to show off its mining technology, while also offering training and scholarships for Cook Islands students to study in China.
Afraid of losing out, the U.S. pushed through an agreement with the Pacific nation this August to explore and fund potential seabed mining there.
David Copley, a former U.S. Navy officer who is now Trump’s mineral czar, made a personal trip to Rarotonga, the most populous island. U.S. and Cook Islands government news releases showed him in a suit picking at pieces of pineapple and papaya as he sat opposite a group of diplomats in Hawaiian-style shirts.
In subsequent visits, U.S. representatives floated sweeteners, including offering to build an airport, supply ocean-research vessels, and even donate a bus.
The jockeying has divided Rarotonga, where chickens and dogs roam freely, and buildings aren’t allowed to be bigger than the tallest coconut trees. Business meetings are held in shorts and flip-flops.
The islands “have the potential to be a power player, but do they have the capacity to be playing with the big boys?” asked Kelvin Passfield, technical director of Te Ipukarea Society, a local environmental nonprofit. “Do we know what we’re getting ourselves into?”
Wider push
Washington’s efforts to cultivate the Cook Islands reflect the Trump administration’s increasingly unorthodox approach to securing resources deemed essential to U.S. economic and military security, after China hurt American businesses by restricting access to rare-earth minerals this year.
In July, the Pentagon announced plans to take a 15%, multibillion-dollar stake in MP Materials, America’s largest rare earth miner. Two months earlier, it strong-armed Ukraine into signing an agreement giving the U.S. access to Ukrainian minerals to help compensate for American military support.
Offshore minerals have become a bigger priority. In April, President Trump signed an executive order to fast-track development of deep-sea mining, in which he pledged to start approving applications for companies to start mining in international waters.
The step had dubious legal validity, since deep-sea areas are governed by treaties administered by the United Nations, rather than individual nations. However, one Canadian-listed outfit, the Metals Company, has already applied for a U.S. license to mine in the Pacific Ocean between Mexico and Hawaii.
Access to the islands’ resources is simpler, because the metals lie within the country’s exclusive economic zone. That in theory gives it the right to grant a license to whomever it wants, though the industry is so new that some legal questions remain unanswered.
“President Trump has prioritized expanding production of critical minerals in an unprecedented way,” said Anna Kelly, the White House deputy press secretary. The Trump administration also recently published a list of areas to explore in U.S. waters, including offshore California, Alaska and Hawaii, which likewise wouldn’t be governed by U.N. rules.
The Republic of Nauru, with one of the world’s smallest economies, has signed its own deal with the Metals Company. Kiribati, another island nation, has said it is exploring an offshore mining partnership with China.
Other Pacific islands are adamantly opposed, saying offshore mining is too dangerous, with science on its practicality lacking.
Island paradise
For the Cook Islands, it could be a game-changer.
Named after English explorer James Cook, who visited in the 1770s, the Cooks include 15 islands across an area roughly the size of Saudi Arabia.
The economy is highly dependent on foreign aid and tourists. Many people have emigrated for better opportunities in places such as New Zealand, leaving a local population of 15,000.
Alcohol abuse and obesity are common. Almost all food—except for fish, coconuts and some root vegetables—must be imported. People living on the more remote islands have to travel for days by boat to get basic medical care.
Thanks to their location close to tectonic plate fault lines, South Pacific islands are surrounded by potentially enormous mineral deposits. The deposits are scattered across the seabed in the form of small rocks known as nodules, akin to black golf balls filled with cobalt, copper and manganese, as well as some rare earths.
Cook Islands officials believe that royalties from offshore mining could help pay for better hospitals and schools, in effect doing for the islands what oil has done for Norway.
“Looking after [the ocean] is an imperative,” said Beverly Stacey-Ataera, commissioner of the Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority, which governs seabed mining in the country. Even so, the economic benefits of mining “would be substantive.”
Power games
China has been courting the islands for years. It built the local police station, an elementary school and the irrigation system in Rarotonga.
In the deal it signed in February, Beijing offered roughly $2.3 million in aid and infrastructure, in return for pledges to cooperate on deep sea-mining research and exploration.
Protests were held in Rarotonga. New Zealand, traditionally the islands’ biggest aid provider, paused funding, saying that steps needed to be taken to “repair confidence and trust” between both countries.
The U.S. ramped up its own charm offensive.
Washington was coming somewhat late to the party: It only established diplomatic relations with the Cook Islands in September 2023, as part of a Biden administration initiative to expand the U.S.’s presence in the region to counter China.
As part of its August agreement with the islands, the U.S. sent representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to meet with environmental groups. That was followed by a 21-day visit of the roughly 220-foot EV Nautilus, an exploration vessel equipped with remotely operated vehicles and acoustic mapping systems, to study the seafloor.
Investors are paying attention. Moana Minerals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Houston-based Ocean Minerals, recently pitched Cook Islands mining to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Resignation
For many in Rarotonga, there is a sense of futility when it comes to U.S.-China competition and deep-sea mining, even though technically the islands haven’t yet formally legalized mining. So far, it has only extended exploration licenses.
“Inevitably it will happen,” said Mike Tavioni, who runs a carving and arts workshop dedicated to preserving Cook Islands Maori life.
“When the world needs those elements, they’re going to get” them, said the 78-year-old, smoking a cigarette and surrounded by wooden shavings. At least it would help provide more predictable revenue than tourism and fishing, he said.
Kevin Iro, a former rugby player, has suggested creating a raui—a Maori-style agreement that puts some areas off-limits to exploitation during certain seasons. He said it could be used when whales are migrating with their calves.
But he wonders if the islands would have the power to enforce it, especially when foreign interests want to extract minerals year-round. “If it is going to happen, then we have to be prepared,” he said.
Others remain skeptical.
“We don’t know what deep-sea mining will do,” said Hinano Macquarie, a local resident who spends her mornings snorkeling among the Rarotonga’s coral reefs, removing fishing nets and trash. “Will it destroy our ocean?”
“You’re talking about big powers. We’re just little people. They will control it, not us,” she said.
Write to Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com