There has been so much turbulence above water in the Strait of Hormuz and now the Red Sea that you’ll be forgiven for missing big news about what is going on under the waves. The United States has created a new Marine Minerals Administration, which will administer the mining of minerals from the seabed in domestic waters. But American firms, with the government’s blessing, are also speeding ahead with plans for mining in international waters, even though the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) bans such unilateral mining.

The seabed is home to tantalizingly vast quantities of minerals. They reside in potato-sized polymetallic nodules, which contain nickel, copper, manganese, cobalt, and, most alluringly, rare earths. Explorers and entrepreneurs have dreamt about mining them since seabed exploration began more than a century ago. Their desire is understandable because the nodules are plentiful. The Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a vast expanse between Hawaii and Mexico, is home to an estimated 21.1 billion dry tons of the nodules—more than any other part of the world.

There has been so much turbulence above water in the Strait of Hormuz and now the Red Sea that you’ll be forgiven for missing big news about what is going on under the waves. The United States has created a new Marine Minerals Administration, which will administer the mining of minerals from the seabed in domestic waters. But American firms, with the government’s blessing, are also speeding ahead with plans for mining in international waters, even though the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) bans such unilateral mining.

The seabed is home to tantalizingly vast quantities of minerals. They reside in potato-sized polymetallic nodules, which contain nickel, copper, manganese, cobalt, and, most alluringly, rare earths. Explorers and entrepreneurs have dreamt about mining them since seabed exploration began more than........

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