Japan Endless supply of rare earth elements

Pure luck. To Japanese experts who, by pure chance, stumbled upon virtually inexhaustible reserves of rare earth elements in coastal mud...
Japanese scientists presented for public viewing a compiled map of huge reserves of rare earth elements in local deep-sea mud. From their words and the smile on their lips, it became clear that there are enough reserves to meet global demand on an “almost infinite basis” - quite a loud statement, don’t you think? According to the Japanese side, the sediment was found in “exclusively Japanese economic waters” and contains more than 16 million tons of elements that are literally more expensive than gold and are used in the production of high-tech products, from mobile phones to electric vehicles. Actually, these deposits were found by a team from several universities, enterprises and government agencies, which examined the western part of the Pacific Ocean near the island of Minamorichishima, Japan. A team of experts concluded that the study site in the mineral-rich region contained about 1.2 million tons of rare earth oxide deposits, according to a study led by Yutaro Takaya, a scientist at Waseda University, and Yasuhiro Kato at the University of Tokyo. According to the assumptions of the same experts, an area of about 2,500 square kilometers south of the Japanese Islands should contain 16 million tons of valuable elements. The reserves of rare earth elements in this area will last for hundreds of years, which is incredible given the severe shortage of rare earth elements. The team is now looking for efficient methods to extract and separate valuable elements from others in the sludge. It will take up to five years to find a solution. The world now relies heavily on rare earth elements in China, much of it supplied by Beijing. But the export of these products is severely limited for diplomatic reasons. In 2010, for example, Japanese producers faced severe shortages as China restricted exports of precious metals.
Author: GEximius