Re: rare earth metals, there is hope!
[url="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Markets/Commodities/Japan-to-begin-extracting-rare-earth-metals-from-seabed-in-2024"]
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Aiming to reduce its reliance on China for rare earth metals, Japan will begin in 2024 to extract the essential materials for electric vehicles and hybrids from the mud on the deep sea bottom in an area off Minami-Torishima Island, a coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean about 1,900 kilometers southeast of Tokyo.
Tokyo plans to begin work to develop extraction technologies starting next year.
Mud rich in rare earth metals has been found on the seafloor at a depth of 6,000 meters in the target area. To get at it, Japan first needs to develop technologies to extract the resources from depths of 5,000-6,000 meters.
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Rare earth is a blanket term referring to 17 rare metals. Japan currently relies on imports for nearly all its rare metal needs, including 60% from China.
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On what is under the sea ...
Global trove of rare earth metals found in Japan's deep-sea mud | Science | AAAS
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A "semi-infinite" supply of rare earth metals used in batteries, electric vehicles, and other green energy technologies has been found in deep-sea mud about 1850 kilometers southeast of Tokyo, The Wall Street Journal reports. Japanese researchers estimate the roughly 2499-square-kilometer region of seabed holds more than 16 million tons of rare earth oxides, including 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, they write this week in Scientific Reports. The find could challenge China's dominance on the rare earths' world market, but extracting such metals from seabed sludge is expensive and difficult; scientists say it could take up to 5 years to figure out the best method.
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Misc notes
- It's pretty far away from Japan so wondering does this place really belong to Japan or will it turn out to be a free for all. Apparently Japan does own this atoll
- If there are rare earth metals that exist and can be extracted from the oceans, have to assume they exist in other places under the ocean and there'll be investments made to find them