Gold, Nodules and the Cook Islands

The Cook Islands has reacted sharply to a showy political moment in the United States: the presentation to President Donald Trump of a gold‑plated replica of one of its deep‑sea nodules — a gesture made by an American mining company now seeking to virtually annex the country’s seabed resources.

On 8 August, American Ocean Minerals (AOM) chairman Tom Albanese handed Trump the gold nodule in a scene that felt uncomfortably like a Koh‑i‑noor moment — a powerful nation receiving a symbolic object from a weaker one’s natural wealth.

“I present to you a gift to the American people on a project I have been very involved with, its deep sea nodules,” Albanese said. “Like you, I am a fan of gold and this is a solid gold replica of a deep sea nodule…”

Trump, characteristically, responded: “Where’s the gold, come on, bring it up, I want the gold.”

He was handed the replica of one of the hundreds of nodules AOM has already removed from the Cook Islands exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Albanese’s votive offering was hardly necessary. Trump’s new ambassador to Aotearoa New Zealand — and concurrently to the Cook Islands — Jared Novelly, arrived in July declaring that the Cooks were “either 1a or 1b on my priority list… I’m going to spend quite a lot of time in the Cooks.” The geopolitical signalling was already well underway.

The statutory Seabed Minerals Authority (SBMA) did not mention the gold‑nodule theatrics or Novelly’s district‑officer enthusiasm. Instead, it addressed the broader corporate manoeuvre behind the spectacle: what it called the “AOMC–Odyssey transaction.”

In unusually blunt language, SBMA told Americans - and the world - that AOM holds only an exploration licence, not ownership of Cook Islands seabed minerals, and certainly not any automatic right to harvest them.