ABSTRACT
The United States Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) established the Office of Strategic and International Minerals (OSIM) in 1983 to provide a focal point for Federal stewardship of nonenergy minerals on the US Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The basic goals of the program are: To evaluate and achieve the potential of the US OCS as a domestic supply source for strategic and other nonenergy mineral resources; to safeguard the ocean and coastal environments by assuring that all OCS mineral activity is environmentally sound and acceptable; to assure that OCS mineral activities are fully coordinated and compatible with other uses of the ocean; to provide an effective consultation process for coastal states and the Federal Government on offshore minerals. A key objective in fulfilling these goals has been to provide a regulatory climate conductive to exploration and development of offshore hard minerals while safeguarding the marine environment.
