Huge rare earth deposits found in Pacific

(Reuters) - Vast deposits of rare earth minerals, crucial in making high-tech electronics products, have been found on the floor of the Pacific Ocean and can be readily extracted, Japanese scientists said on Monday.

"The deposits have a heavy concentration of rare earths. Just one square kilometer (0.4 square mile) of deposits will be able to provide one-fifth of the current global annual consumption," said Yasuhiro Kato, an associate professor of earth science at the University of Tokyo.

The discovery was made by a team led by Kato and including researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.

They found the minerals in sea mud extracted from depths of 3,500 to 6,000 meters (11,500-20,000 ft) below the ocean surface at 78 locations. One-third of the sites yielded rich contents of rare earths and the metal yttrium, Kato said in a telephone interview.

www.reuters.com...


; So the minerals found are used to create electronics like, flat screen tv's, and aswell are needed to create hybrid cars.

What kind of minerals, I have no clue, but maybe we should stop buying electronics so they don't need to be rare, and we don't have to have these minerals drilled for =D.

...Yeah I know terrible idea.

reply to post by Oozii


China won't be happy i heard they cut a lot of their rare mineral exports to the western world because they needed it for their country.

Japan and the U.S would probably wanna exploit these rare mineral deposits especially if they are this common in the Sites at the Ocean Depths in the Pacific

reply to post by Oozii


We-e-ll, such rare earth minerals as gadolinium make it possible for doctors to make diagnoses of their patients with MRIs, amongst other things. The trouble is, 90% of the world's known rare earth deposits are all in China.

China has drastically cut back on its exports of such substances, preferring to hoard them. The US has had to fall back upon reopening played-out mines in places like Tonopah, Nevada of late.

Modern life doesn't allow for such things as doing without rare earths, no matter who withholds them. Machines for entertainment such as TVs aren't the half of it. Medicine & warfare, with all that entails, are paramount.

Are these deposits off the coast of Japan real? Or are they a propaganda designed to get people's minds off of Fukushima & other problems? I wonder.

reply to post by CincyFreedom

Are these deposits off the coast of Japan real? Or are they a propaganda designed to get people's minds off of Fukushima & other problems? I wonder.

I was wondering as I was reading this; are these deposits in a spot where radioactive materials fell to the bottom of the Pacific floor?

If Chinese recently cut on those rare materials, maybe Japan saw an opportunity to boost their economy following Fukushima... Hm.

hi
heres a link on YTTRIUM

en.wikipedia.org...

Yes lets finish the oceans off since British Petroleum fiasco didn't finish the job lets face it the oceans aren't dead enough yet lets start raping the ocean floor for more resources more resources more!!!

Are they stupid or something In my province they just found one of the richest deposit of yttrium in the world, just because they don't own the company doesn't mean they cant share.In other words they are probably competing companys.They are in a real rush to get this new mine opened back up its' actually an old mine that was used for gold and silver extraction.A wealthy asian investor wants this mine in production by next year.( the mine in my province).

Its a shame we are still getting raw materials from the ground when there is already so much of it above ground.Not to mention tailings from other mines of the past may be rich in this mineral they never had a use for before.Go to old mines and mine the tailings.

Originally posted by CincyFreedom
reply to post by Oozii

 

We-e-ll, such rare earth minerals as gadolinium make it possible for doctors to make diagnoses of their patients with MRIs, amongst other things. The trouble is, 90% of the world's known rare earth deposits are all in China.

Could you do me a favor could you post where you got the information that china has 90% of the worlds known rare earth deposits?
thank you

reply to post by Oozii


It's nice to see China no longer have a monopoly over these minerals. I hope the cost to extract them isn't too high and does not have a negative impact on the environment. Don't quote me on this, but I believe there are also high deposits of the rare minerals in Afghanistan as well. I remember briefly hearing about this last year I think. For all we know it could all be a gimmick just like the oil price fixing.

reply to post by enament


Hello, enament- try these: BBC News "China Creates Rare Earth Monopoly in Inner Mongolia", & the Washington Times: "China's Rare Earth Monopoly". The latter article actually claims that China has a 97% hold on the world's supply of known deposits, but from the many articles that I've researched over the last 8 months or so I've averaged it out to 90% (Australia has a few deposits too). Forgive my artistic license if you will. Google up "rare earths" & you'll find out no end of things. Good luck- CincyFreedom

Did you guys know that the rare in rare earth has nothing to do with the element being rare. Rare earth minerals are really quite plentiful.

Originally posted by spyder550
Did you guys know that the rare in rare earth has nothing to do with the element being rare. Rare earth minerals are really quite plentiful.

Doesen't that go completely against what the word actually means???

Definition of rare as seen in the dictionary:
rare 1 |re(ə)r|
adjective ( rarer , rarest )
(of an event, situation, or condition) not occurring very often : a rare genetic disorder | [with infinitive ] it's rare to meet someone who's content with their life.
• (of a thing) not found in large numbers and consequently of interest or value : the jellyfish tree, one of the rarest plants on earth.

hmmmmmmmmmmm

reply to post by ShadowZion


It is plentiful but no concentrated -- it has also been largely "unexplored for" right now the concentration is in China but there are also pockets in the US.

reply to post by Oozii


I wonder where exactly those locations are. Could they possibly be in the area that China is contesting? Since they seem to have the corner on the market currently, maybe they already knew of the deposits and just didn't want others in the game. It would end their monoply and eventually hurt their economy.

There is more to the scarcity of 'rare earth' minerals than the simple location of these minerals. They can be located all over the Earth in deposits. The reason that China has the monopoly is not the vast source (which they have) of mineral wealth, but also the vast source of disposable labor (which they also have) to mine the minerals. It is like any other toxic industry - it lands in China because it cannot be allowed here or anywhere else.

Refining the minerals concentrate tons of radioactive minerals as a byproduct.

The production of rare earth oxides comes attached with a major problem: radioactive waste. The mining of the rare earths and the processing of the various elements produces large amounts of thorium as a byproduct. This material is radioactive and dangerous to human health. In China, lax environmental laws have allowed the country to build a monopoly in the market. However, now the country is looking to mitigate environmental damage from the production of rare earths, shutting down small mining operations, and raising environmental standards. www.ibtimes.com... -rare-earth-liability-or-asset.htm

The reduction from China could be a way to stranglehold the market...but maybe it could be the numbers of 'disposable workers' that are now dying and cannot be hidden, and an increased enviromental awareness after the cumulative damage of running these mines and refineries, forcing China to reduce their output and therefore the amount they can sell outside the country? (actually this is the case according to this article "China's Rare Earth Mining Catastrophe")

I'll throw some more bait for the hard-core: Maybe now is also a good time to start tearing up the Pacific seabed since the increase in radiation levels waon't be noticed as much? If background levels of radiation become a high standard, then we can continue our trek thru technology, refine this stuff everywhere, and only the 'radioactively immune' will continue the human race? If I went on I might even suspect a plank of the NWO constitution includes culling the human race of the radioactively weak?

Wow, I scare myself. Need to go read some MSM and sheeple down.

Originally posted by enament
Yes lets finish the oceans off since British Petroleum fiasco didn't finish the job lets face it the oceans aren't dead enough yet lets start raping the ocean floor for more resources more resources more!!!

Are they stupid or something In my province they just found one of the richest deposit of yttrium in the world, just because they don't own the company doesn't mean they cant share.In other words they are probably competing companys.They are in a real rush to get this new mine opened back up its' actually an old mine that was used for gold and silver extraction.A wealthy asian investor wants this mine in production by next year.( the mine in my province).

Its a shame we are still getting raw materials from the ground when there is already so much of it above ground.Not to mention tailings from other mines of the past may be rich in this mineral they never had a use for before.Go to old mines and mine the tailings.

Sorry I got my metals mixed up its indium in my province not yttrium sorry if I could still edit my post I would sorry.

telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com...

Originally posted by TheUniverse
Japan and the U.S would probably wanna exploit these rare mineral deposits especially if they are this common in the Sites at the Ocean Depths in the Pacific

Japan certainly has incentive to explore for a source of rare earths after China used their monopoly as a form of economic warfare back in September 2010:

www.washingtontimes.com...

China produces 97 percent of the world’s rare earths, and its fast economic growth requires that more of its metals production remain at home for domestic use. But last month’s unofficial embargo on shipment of rare-earth elements to Japan in response to the detention of a Chinese fishing-boat captain whose boat collided with a Japanese patrol boat shows that for China, rare-earth metals are not only iPod ingredients but also tools of economic warfare.

No wonder Japan has been exploring for other sources of Rare Earths.

China's monopoly isn't because they are the only country with rare earths, but as others have said, they have a plentiful supply but also cheaper labor and more lax environmental laws so the monopoly is on the production of rare earths, rather than the mere existence of them.

Thanks so much, everyone, for letting all of us know about China's poisonous environmental record with regards to rare earths. It doesn't really surprise me, seeing as China has the worst & most dangerous coal mines on earth, as well as a terrible human rights record.

Many rare earth mines are strip mines; in lots of ways they are the worst sort of all because they lay the land waste & create the biggest amounts of toxic by-products. I don't welcome such methods being employed anywhere, & I especially don't look forward to them being re-employed in the United States!

Oh No! Here we go again..... Not another WAR! im sure US will find a way to get there hands on it (WMD) lolz

Whatever stops those idiots from whaling, is fine with me.

Oh well, just another resource they're going to try to exploit at maximum. This is interesting tho, I had never heard of such terms (ex: rare earth minerals and so on).

Sorry if this post is pessimistic but what else should I hope for..