Critical Minerals Occurring Offshore

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BOEM is the sole federal steward of marine mineral resources, including critical minerals, on the OCS. BOEM works with other federal and state agencies to survey, explore, and characterize portions of the federal seabed that may contain critical mineral deposits.

Locating the Minerals

All the BOEM Regions are likely to contain critical minerals:

  • Alaska: Heavy minerals and crusts
  • Atlantic Ocean: Heavy minerals, crusts, and nodules
  • Gulf of America: Heavy minerals and brine lakes
  • Pacific Coast: Phosphates and sulfides
  • Remote Pacific: Nodule and crust deposits

BOEM works with other agencies to survey, explore, and characterize portions of the federal seabed that may contain critical mineral deposits.

Helpful Tools

RE-CHOMPR

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Read BOEM's Resource Evaluation of Critical and Hard Offshore Mineral Programmatic Reference

USGS Map

USGS Viewer

View prospectus seabed mineral regions in the Pacific through the USGS viewer.