Two seabed mineral areas off American Samoa go to auction on November 19

Pacific Mineral Lease Sale 1, off American Samoa, now has a date and final terms.

A final leasing notice filed at the Federal Register on Monday, for publication on Tuesday, sets an in-person ascending oral auction for 9 a.m. Pacific time on Thursday, November 19. Two lease areas will be offered, one after the other: OCS-P 0568, at about 16,332,256 acres, and OCS-P 0569, at about 15,170,979. Added together, which the notice does not do, that is roughly 31.5 million acres.

A lease would cover minerals and metals in polymetallic nodules and ferromanganese crust deposits. Oil, gas and sulphur stay with the government.

The notice comes from the Marine Minerals Administration. It says an order of the Interior Secretary created that office to replace the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and because the transition is still under way, the document carries both names.

The terms

The minimum bonus bid is $3m an area, with a primary term of 20 years. There is no rent for the first five lease years. After that, the per-acre rate depends on how much of the original area a lessee keeps, rising in steps to $10 an acre in years 16 to 20 for one holding half or more.

Royalties start at 2 percent of production value for the first five years under an approved mining plan and move to 5 percent from the sixth. Material produced during delineation and testing pays 5 percent. No royalty relief is on offer.

Bidders need a $600,000 deposit for each area they want the chance to win, and the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission review the results for antitrust problems before any bid is accepted.