Japan Discovers Huge Deposits of Rare Earths

Researchers in Japan say they have found rare earth deposits totaling more than 16 million tons under the seabed 1,200 miles southeast of Tokyo, The Nikkei reports.

The deposits represent enough supplies to meet global needs for decades at current consumption rates, according to the team from Waseda University and University of Tokyo. They posted their findings yesterday in the online British journal Scientific Reports.

The minerals were discovered in high concentrations at 25 locations within a 965 sq-mile area. Among the elements are dysprosium, an element used in electric motor magnets, yttrium, a component of lasers, and other rare earths used in display screens and numerous medical and military applications.

The “extremely high grade” deposits lie under an area of the Pacific Ocean that is 3.5 miles deep, according to the report. It says the location presents an “easy” extraction and recovery job. The research team suggests using industrial-size hydrocyclone separators to extract the minerals from the relatively course-grain deep-sea mud.

The researchers estimate the recovery technique would result in product densities 20 times that of land deposits in China, according to The Nikkei. The newspaper notes that China currently supplies about 90% of the world’s rare earth elements.