Japan found tons of rare-earth metals
A team of Japanese researchers from multiple institutions has calculated that an area of deep-sea mud in the western North Pacific Ocean near Minami-Torishima Island, Japan, contains more than 16 million tons of rare-earth elements and yttrium (REY). In an open-access paper published in Scientific Reports, they estimate that this research area could supply yttrium (Y), europium (Eu), terbium (Tb), and dysprosium (Dy) for 780, 620, 420, and 730 years, respectively, and has the potential to supply these metals on a “semi-infinite” basis to the world.
The research team, led by Yutaro Takaya, an instructor at Waseda University, and Professor Yasuhiro Kato of the University of Tokyo, published detailed findings on the size of the deposits for the first time on Tuesday in Scientific Reports, a U.K. online scientific journal. They also said they had come up with the technology to allow the resources to be extracted efficiently. The researchers plan to work with private companies to recover the rare earths.
Rare-earth metals are critical in our high-tech gadget age. They are needed to make everything from mobile phones to batteries to electric vehicles.
Much of the world relies heavily on China for rare earths, a concern for some. China accounts for about 90% of global production and its dominant position has resulted in price spikes and shortages in the past.
The newly found resources lie within Japan’s exclusive economic zone, and recovering them could help the country lose its standing as a resource-poor country.
The research team collected samples of the rare earth elements in 25 locations on the seabed across a 2,500 square-kilometer area south of Minami-Torishima and analyzed their density.
The analysis found 730 years’ worth of global demand for dysprosium, used for the magnets in hybrid cars, and 780 years’ worth of yttrium, used in lasers.
The recovery method developed by the team was based on work with calcium phosphate, a composite substance in teeth and bones.
The substance contains a high density of rare-earth elements and has a large particle diameter. The team conducted experiments to separate it using centrifugal force and found that the density can be raised by up to 2.6 times. The method can boost the density of rare-earth elements to 20 times that of deposits in mainland China.
“The realization of rare-earth resources development has come into sight because of the sharp increase in economic efficiency [of recovery],” Kato said.
In 2012, Kato’s team discovered an area near Minami-Torishima that appeared to contain a large deposit of rare-earth elements. They formed a consortium to develop the technology to extract the resources that included Modec, a Japanese builder of offshore floating platforms, and Toyota Motor.
Still, the discovery would represent a significant new source if tapped. Investors were keen on that possibility, with shares in offshore production, storage and offloading systems company Modec Inc up 8.4 per cent in morning trade in Tokyo on Wednesday, while those in Japan Drilling gained 6.1 per cent. The benchmark Topix index was off 0.1 per cent.
The find also follows a turnaround for rare earths prices in 2017, which began to rise in response to growing demand for magnets in electric car motors and wind turbines after dropping precipitously in 2012. However, any impact on prices from the new discovery in Japan’s EEZ would depend on how soon extraction begins.
In December, London-listed Rainbow Rare Earths exported its first shipment of 25 tonnes of rare earths from Burundi, one of the few sources of rare earths outside of China.