The U.S. government is advancing its intention to lease offshore seabeds in federal waters

The U.S. government is advancing its intention to lease offshore seabeds in federal waters for critical mineral extraction near Virginia and the Northern Mariana Islands. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management under the U.S. Department of Interior announced two recent actions both on Dec. 12. The agency has noted that all of the regions it oversees are thought to have critical minerals on the ocean floors.The BOEM, which manages 3.2 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf, launched a process to start a mineral lease in federal waters off the Virginia coast. The agency noted Dec. 12 it has started an official review after receiving an unsolicited lease sale request in November from Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. to extract heavy mineral sands and phosphorites. Do you think that US has been forced to go back to its protected minerals ?