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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 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.
The area reserves offer "great potential as ore deposits for some of the most critically important elements in modern society," it said.
The report said there were hundreds of years of reserves of most of the rare earths in the area surveyed.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Tuesday April 17 2018, @09:27PM (2 children)
Yttrium, europium, dysprosium and terbium are what's listed in the Nature article.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday April 17 2018, @09:35PM (1 child)
Oh, so - rare earth as in those bottom rows on the Periodic table, not the actually rare and valuable ones from higher up...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Tuesday April 17 2018, @09:51PM
They're valuable to be sure. And they're rare in the sense that they tend not to be highly concentrated and easy to mine and separate for use.
But many things are valuable and rare compared to our use and the effort required to extract them. Sadly, tantalum can be found in places where people get exploited to obtain it. But that's often a problem of bad or nonexistent governments.