The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced today the completion of the Area Identification step in BOEM’s Outer Continental Shelf mineral leasing process for potential critical mineral development offshore the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Area ID is the next step in BOEM’s regulatory framework and represents the identification of tracts to be carried forward for further leasing consideration and environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act. Area ID is not a commitment to lease and does not authorize any mineral development activities.
The CNMI Area ID and environmental analysis follows the publication of the Request for Information and Interest on Nov. 12, 2025. BOEM reviewed available OCS mineral resource information, environmental data, and comments and indications of interest received from stakeholders, Indigenous communities, territorial governments, industry representatives, and the public. More than 65,000 public submissions were received, including both comments opposing and supporting advancement of offshore critical mineral activities in and around an area offshore CNMI defined in the RFI.
BOEM will now prepare an Environmental Assessment to analyze the action of leasing and authorization of preliminary activities. Preliminary activities are defined as actions that have no significant adverse impact on natural resources and only allow a leaseholder to conduct bathymetric, geological, geophysical, mapping, and other surveys necessary to develop a future comprehensive Delineation, Testing, and/or Mining Plan. This environmental review will include necessary consultations under environmental and other statutes including Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.
It is important to note that lease issuance only allows a lessee to conduct preliminary activities (i.e. high-resolution geophysical surveys, limited seabed and biological sampling, and oceanographic measurements), which can inform future decision-making through early-stage data collection.
A copy of the CNMI Area ID memorandum, maps and additional information are available on BOEM’s CNMI web page at www.boem.gov/CNMI.
BOEM remains committed to a rigorous and science-based decision-making process that incorporates local knowledge and prioritizes environmental protection while evaluating potential domestic sources of critical minerals essential to national security, manufacturing, and advanced energy technologies.
For additional information on BOEM’s critical minerals program, please visit: www.boem.gov/marine-minerals/critical-minerals.
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The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) manages development of U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) energy, mineral, and geological resources in an environmentally and economically responsible way.