Nothing has been decided yet. That is worth saying plainly, because the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Request for Information and Interest (RFI) published June 23 is an early-stage process step, not a lease award or even a decision to hold a lease sale. But it opens the door to something that has no precedent in U.S. history: commercial mining of the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The RFI identifies an area between three and 63.5 miles off the Delmarva Peninsula, covering approximately 1.77 million acres just north of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
Behind the RFI is a single company. Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration submitted an unsolicited lease request in November 2025 for more than 2,500 square miles of that same stretch of ocean, targeting heavy mineral sands and phosphorites. Congressional research suggests those deposits may be rich in titanium and other materials on the U.S. Geological Survey’s list of 60 critical minerals. BOEM reviewed the application, signaled in December 2025 it would move forward, and published the RFI this week. Virginia is now one of four active seabed mineral leasing processes the Trump administration has opened under Executive Order 14285, alongside efforts off American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Alaska. None of those have produced a lease yet either.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.