A “semi-infinite” supply of rare earths, vital elements for the global production of batteries, hard disc drives, portable electronics, microphones and many others, has been found in a deep-sea ore deposit about 1,850 kilometers southeast of Tokyo, beneath the waves of the vast northwestern Pacific Ocean, The Wall Street Journal reported this month.
Researchers from Tokyo-based Waseda University have surveyed the roughly 2,500-square-kilometer region of the sea floor there, at depths of 5,600 to 5,800 meters, off the coral atoll of Minami-Tori-shima, aka Marcus Island, and affirmed the area could hold more than 16 million tons of rare-earth oxides. They would include 780 years’ worth of the global supply of yttrium, 620 years’ worth of europium, 420 years’ worth of terbium, and 730 years’ worth of dysprosium, according to their paper that appeared in the journal Scientific Reports.
The data and estimates have also confirmed samples obtained by another team of University of Tokyo scholars and Japanese maritime researchers from the same part of the sea floor a few years ago.
Reports back then noted that the research team had found a mud layer 2-4 meters beneath the seabed with concentrations of up to 0.66% rare-earth oxides (REO). A potential deposit might compare in grade with the ion-absorption-type deposits in southern China that provide the bulk of the country’s rare-earth production, which grade in the range of 0.05% to 0.5% REO.
The find could potentially overthrow China’s dominance in the rare-earth world market, but extracting such metals from seabed sludge is expensive and technically challenging. A statement by Waseda University said scientists could still take years to figure out the best method of exploration.
Because of their geochemical properties, rare-earth elements are typically dispersed and not often found concentrated as rare-earth minerals in economically exploitable ore deposits.
China, sitting on one of the world’s largest deposits of rare earths, has for decades enjoyed a monopoly in mining and exploration of the “yeast” of modern electronic industry.
With a cartel of state-owned miners and government-decreed mining caps and export quotas, Beijing has been playing its rare-earth trump card to support or suppress trading partners.
For instance, Beijing slashed its export quota to 35,000 tons per year from 2010-2015 in the name of conserving scarce resources and protecting its environment, creating an international undersupply and a bitter spat between Chinese sellers and buyers in the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea.
The quota was dropped after Beijing lost a suit filed by the US administration of Barack Obama with the World Trade Organization.
The rare-earths dispute formed part of the storyline in Season 2 of the Netflix blockbuster TV series House of Cards.
World should not be surprised if china comes up with a new "historical map" with "11 dash lines" and start laying claims to this area…expansionists 🙂
The rare earth propaganda campaign against China is ridiculous.
First there are lots of other rare earth deposits in other parts of the world like Australia, USA, etc. The mining and processing of rare earths is polluting and these countries choose not to do so by enacting strict environmental regulations. Australia chose to send its ores to Malaysia for processing against local environmental groups protests. Western media constantly criticise China for environmental issues but at the same time criticise China’s efforts to regulate this highly polluting industry. US and its’ vassal states brought a case against China for so called ‘restricting’ rare earth exports.
Finally only recently US lifted its own embargo against exporting its domestic crude oil production. US always state that China does not follow international rules order but fail to follow the same rules that itself created.
Unbelievable hypocrisy from US and its vassals UK, Australia, France, etc.!
Yep, hypocrisy left, right and centre when it comes to their dealings with China. All that screed about a polluting China, and then we discover that they’ve been exporting their waste to China to process. Easy peasy. So all that grandstanding about how they are recycling plastic and other waste, they actually do on China’e environmental dime, while lecturing the rest of the world about it. China’s recent move to stop importing these waste was met with howls of protest and the US, for example, is demanding that China continue to take its rubbish. Talk about chutzpah.
Yes, China method (Solvent Extraction) of extracting rare earth is polluting of the area around the separtion plants. But the new method developed in Canada called Molecular Recognition technology is about to change all that. It is green chemistry. Able to extract rare earths from mining waste/tailing, oil sands, coal ash and clay and soil around coal seams. To learn more, check out: Ucore.com
Deep seabed resources in the high seas regime – the “common heritage of mankind”?
As in many business stories, potential discovery is a long way from actual production: "…extracting such metals from seabed sludge is expensive and technically challenging. …could still take years to figure out the best method of exploration."
And is it normal for an EEZ to extend 1850 km from the country claiming it? Not that I’m doubting it, it just seems a long way. The Paracel Islands in the South China Sea are closer to China than that….
But it would be a good thing for more countries than one to have economic deposits of rare earths. I like to see China getting stronger, but effective monopolies are a bad thing in principle.
You are right sharma, the possibility is big that china might hurriedly show to japan & to the world of their own map showing that the area from where the new discovery about a rare mineral deposit in japan’s pacific territory, is in itself lies within china’s exclusive economic zone. China is a master notorious deceiver. They might expore the place on a pretext of putting up a temporary shelter for their fishermen and eventually they’ll secure the place & they’ll put up a man made island in the place as what they did in southwest philippine sea.