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Japan China Earth Technology

Japan Team Maps 'Semi-Infinite' Trove of Rare Earth Elements (japantimes.co.jp) 162

Posted by BeauHD from the hide-and-seek dept.
schwit1 quotes a report from The Japan Times: Japanese researchers have mapped vast reserves of rare earth elements in deep-sea mud, enough to feed global demand on a "semi-infinite basis," according to a new study. The deposit, found within Japan's exclusive economic zone waters, contains more than 16 million tons of the elements needed to build high-tech products ranging from mobile phones to electric vehicles, according to the study, released Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports. The team, comprised of several universities, businesses and government institutions, surveyed the western Pacific Ocean near Minamitori Island. In a sample area of the mineral-rich region, the team's survey estimated 1.2 million tons of "rare earth oxide" is deposited there, said the study, conducted jointly by Waseda University's Yutaro Takaya and the University of Tokyo's Yasuhiro Kato, among others. The finding extrapolates that a 2,500-sq. km region off the southern Japanese island should contain 16 million tons of the valuable elements, and "has the potential to supply these metals on a semi-infinite basis to the world," the study said.
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Japan Team Maps 'Semi-Infinite' Trove of Rare Earth Elements More

Japan Team Maps 'Semi-Infinite' Trove of Rare Earth Elements

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  • Space Economics (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    There goes asteroid mining.

    • Re:Space Economics (Score:5, Informative)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @06:10PM (#56420827)

      There goes asteroid mining.

      Nope. "Rare earth" metals were never the rational for asteroid mining, because rare earth metals are not actually rare. They are fairly common, but generally don't exist in concentrated ores that can be economically mined. Neither asteroids nor deep sea deposits change that, because neither is going to be more economical to mine than known deposits in China, Africa, and California.

      The Mountain Pass Mine [wikipedia.org] in California is currently mothballed, not because of lack or ore, but because prices are too low to stay in business.

      Asteroid mining is for metals like gold, platinum, and other siderophile elements [wikipedia.org], which are rare in the earth's crust, but thousands of times more common in the earth's core and in asteroids. The earth's crust is mostly oxides, so metals that do not oxidize readily tend to sink to the core.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bongey ( 974911 )
        No the Mountain Pass Mine mainly closed due to environmental control cost.

      • Not only are rare earths not really rare, and even if like in Mongolia this might be a "deposit" that is a bit more concentrated to make it economical, the REAL problem with the extraction of the metals is how dirty and horrible the process is, which is why it is almost exclusively done in places with little or no environmental protection as otherwise it would just be too expensive...

        But sure, lets extract in a place like Japan, and lets also do it under water in the ocean, because surely that A) won't be m

  • Seriously?!?!?!?!? (Score:4)

    by OzPeter ( 195038 ) on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @04:24PM (#56420217)

    The Duped story is the one before this one. WTF editors .. get your shit together

  • Dupe articles... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I thought Slashdot's new owner [youtu.be] would fix this shit by now.

  • "semi-infinite" = bullshit (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @04:27PM (#56420241)

    Either infinite or not. If not infinite, then not "semi-infinite" either. As physical and real, not infinite.

    • Re:"semi-infinite" = bullshit (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Blymie ( 231220 ) on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @04:34PM (#56420281)

      Better to divide by zero, than divide infinity. At least my brain won't explode.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hawk ( 1151 )

        Your brain maybe, but keeping in mind that when God divides by zero, we get another black hole . . .

        hawk

    • Either infinite or not. If not infinite, then not "semi-infinite" either. As physical and real, not infinite.

      Bah.

      Yeah, it's imprecise use of language, but it's quite clear that what they mean is "more than we're ever likely to need".

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        For the next 100 years. Humankind, especially governments and corporations can't seem to see beyond even 20 years so they probably think it's "semi-infinite", but I bet after 50 years of mining, they'll go, "um oops, we are running out."

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by es330td ( 964170 )

      Either infinite or not. If not infinite, then not "semi-infinite" either. As physical and real, not infinite.

      Though diagnosed, my mother in law is not being treated for cancer because the doctors have determined that at her age something else will cause her death long before cancer does. I think in this situation semi-infinite can be read as "longer than we have for shortage to be of concern."

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I'll rank semi-infinite rare earth materials up there with perpetual motion / free energy and get-rich-quick schemes. AKA con jobs.

    • Either infinite or not. If not infinite, then not "semi-infinite" either. As physical and real, not infinite.

      Ah, but according to Slashdot, they found two semi-infinite troves. So technically that's just one infinite trove!

    • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by Lunix Nutcase ( 1092239 )

      Stop being an aspie literalist. Most people know what was meant by that term.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Yeah, it means "we think our readers are too stupid to deal with numbers". They may just be right on this.

        I am not being a "literalist" here. I am criticizing that they do not give _any_ indication of how long this will last at present consumption levels.

  • I feel like the term "semi-infinite" attached to anything remotely valuable _vastly_ underestimates humankind's capacity for consumption. On a separate note... what does "semi-infinite" even mean? Half of an infinite number is still infinite, at least under the general understanding of infinity.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      well, mathematically semi-infinite means infinite in only one direction, like the natural and whole number sets. They have a lowest number but no highest number.

      In this case I think semi-infinite just means more than the currently projected human usage, but still a finite amount.

    • Okay how about resources you know are there but you know your ability to extract them will take a long time to build up. Think about it like oil reserves you know a shitload of oil is in that pocket buried deep within the earth but you also know it's going to take a long time to drill the the hole to get there and thus its going to be expensive as fuck gain access to it . So maybe the headline should have been "reserves that we can tap for the foreseeable future" would have been more apt.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        The problem with rare earths, why China took the lead, is not having the resource, it is the pollution generated trying to extract the resource. Reason why not so popular in the US http://tucson.com/business/loc... [tucson.com] from the article "The most hazardous refineries are those that crack the tight chemical bonds that tie rare earths found in mineral ores to a variety of hazardous materials, notably radioactive thorium.". So either tons of pollution in Africa, or much more stable and safe resources in isolated lo

  • Time to break out the Hughes Glomar Explorer. It's original CIA cover story was mining from the ocean floor for rare minerals. Actually using it for that purpose would be sweet irony, instead of trying to raise sunken Soviet subs.
    • Unfortunately it was sent to be scrapped. Or so we were told.
    • Stuff You Should Know, perhaps? They just covered this last week. The fact that the Glomar Response came from this is just awesome. "I can neither confirm nor deny ..."

  • Semi-infinite? (Score:5, Funny)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @04:36PM (#56420307)

    Is that a bit like semi-pregnant?

    • Would "semi-pregnant" mean your ultrasound shows a healthy baby but with no legs?

      "Semi-infinite" in the featured article is hyperbole, but it does mean several lifetimes' worth at present consumption: "The report said there were hundreds of years of reserves of most of the rare earths in the area surveyed."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by godrik ( 1287354 )

      So if your better half is pregnant, doesn't that make you semi-pregnant?
      Not sure how that maps to semi-infinite though.

  • Finally dig for something we can use instead of a broken Russian sub.

  • Godzilla? (Score:5, Funny)

    by MrTester ( 860336 ) on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @04:45PM (#56420371)
    Am I the only person who's first reaction was to think "AHA! So mining these rare earth metals are what will awaken Godzilla"
  • With many sea-based species already being under high stress would the environmental impact of such mining push many of those in the area to extinction ?
  • China will not be able to have their monopoly. I would not be surprised if China decides to declare that area to belong to them. It would be in keeping with their other aggressive actions.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      China will flood the market with much lower cost products until Japan cannot afford exploration and production costs.
      • they will likely try, but it should be easier/cheaper to mine than the ground based REMs. In addition, higher concentration.
        But, assume that China gov subsidized and dumps (which is how they do things like Steel, aluminum, LEDs, solar, etc). All Japanese gov needs to do is continue mining with gov mining and setting it aside ( like US Helium and oil reserves ). Once the prices rise enough, then release it on the market.
        China's gov appears to have plenty of money, but they have been going heavily into de
    • I had a similar thought - if Japan found rare earths in the Sea of China, China would claim them and things could go downhill rather quickly. However, Minamitori Island is over a thousand kilometers to the East of Japan, putting the find well out of China's grasp.
      • not just east, but south. In fact, it is the furthest south east. Still, china has a history in Asia of claiming anything of value. the CCP prefers indirect control, but will go after direct control if needed.

        It will be interesting to see what China's gov does. These are very likely to be cheaper than what china can dig. The reason is that ocean is now easier than getting into the ground, and the ores are richer in REMs than Chinas.
        • Southeast from Tokyo, East from the next closest part of the archipelago, but yeah it's pretty far out.

          The worst situation would be if the find was in Japan's part of the Sea of China as China has claimed all of it and would try to exploit the find. That could get out of hand very fast. With the find being as far as it is from anything China has tried to grab, I expect they'll try and get permission for one of their companies to mine it, be denied, and eventually try to buy whatever company or companie

  • That sound you hear... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by es330td ( 964170 ) on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @04:51PM (#56420413)
    is the Chinese leadership lamenting the loss of the pressure point they thought they had to influence the world.
  • Maybe somebody just lost a sub on the floor of the Pacific. If the Chinese suddenly break out a refurbished Glomar Explorer soon that will be our answer.

  • To mine it all up, that's all we have to do, destroy to ocean and the marina animals and sushi fish living there, I'm sure they won't mind, Its not like the animals can do anything about it anyways.

  • Builds more islands and claims that it is now part of their territory.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • This just in: (Score:5, Funny)

    by rworne ( 538610 ) on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @07:19PM (#56421167) Homepage

    A Chinese scholar just discovered a long lost 14th century docx file declaring the sea around Japan as Chinese sovereign territory, pushing aside a Korean waving a 15th century PDF file claiming it was theirs.

  • ... we're too busy looking for more decomposed dinosaurs and plants to burn to be looking ahead like the Japanese.

  • So, rare earth elements aren't so rare after all then.

    My biggest concern is: what is mining this resource going to do to the environment? Japan's already screwed up the northern Pacific with Fukushima to the point I'm concerned about eating Alaskan Salmon, or any north Pacific fish, what is their mining of this sea silt going to do to further damage the Pacific Ocean? The places on land that they these elements are pretty fucked environmentally, and that damage can't be carried around the world on air cu

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mpercy ( 1085347 )

      They were never rare as in "not a lot of them" they were rare because they do not tend to be found in concentrated ores. They are common and ubiquitous, but good luck putting enough together to do anything on a commercial scale with them without a crapton of effort and processing.

  • Come on Slashdot.

  • You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

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