CNMI congresswoman calls for equal share of seabed lease profits
The US government is moving forward with plans to sell deep-sea mining leases covering about 67 million acres of seabed around the Northern Mariana Islands.
It follows last month's announcement that American Samoa's seabed is also slated to be auctioned later this year as US President Donald Trump looks to fast-track seabed mining to secure access to critical minerals and weaken China's grip on the global market.
While there's strong opposition in the CNMI to seabed mining, CNMI Congresswoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds say she's pushing the US government for a 50-50 split of the profits.
"My concern is that this activity will move forward without input of the people who are living here," she said. "Given the fact that we are a non-voting member in Congress ... we should look for areas of opportunities where this could potentially benefit the people who live here."
Kimberlyn King-Hinds is the delegate to the United States House of Representatives from the Northern Mariana Islands's at-large c…