Huge rare earth deposits found in Pacific

reply to post by Arbitrageur

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.

I knew of this report thank you starred. Good info i just didn't take the time to find the link

I wonder if they will go after these rare-earth minerals especially the yttrium which is extremely un-common, yet they claim to have found a large amount of it compared to what is on the continents and/or other rare earth sites.

I wonder where Japan or the U.S will send these rare-minerals for refinement and production

reply to post by Oozii


the Japs should concentrate on their on "RARE EARTH problem" at Fuknshtu...

also my guess is that "they" have known about these minerals location for ages...
now they want to try and cripple China...etc

anyway...

seeya

There should be a way of refining all of our metalic and elemental needs from plain old sea water.
The ocean contains a lot of things we need.
Why they dont come up with some kind of molecular sieve that they could attache to ships.??

reply to post by stirling


That would be cool.

They could dump the excess radioactive thorium right back in piles on top of the sea floor. Wow. Wouldn't poison anything except a bunch of fish and who eats that stuff anyway?

I've known about these rare minerals in the Pacific for quite some time......most people in the Pacific do. However in order to access these minerals means destruction to the coastlines of Pacific Islands and nations, their main food source and their livelihoods.

reply to post by bluemirage5


No it doesn't. They can extract the rare earths from depths of several thousand feet, well away from the coastline and actually more concentrated in the vast expanses of abyssal plains. These area's are actually largely devoid of life as well and generally just a huge expanse of sediment with occasional bottom feeders. Environmental damage would be limited, at most.

There is no logical reason why this would affect any Pacific Islanders and also why these would be found only in the Pacific. It stands to reason the same rare earths could be found in any sediment on the ocean floor, such as in the Atlantic.

I sometimes think peeps on ATS can be a little over dramatic about things sometimes.

reply to post by stumason


Tell that to the Pacific Islanders that sit on or between tectonic plates...we already know exactly whats involved by accessing these minerals.

reply to post by bluemirage5


We all sit "on or between" tectonic plates, what do you mean?

This involves no "mining", per se. It is a big bloody hoover that will suck up the mud, sift it, run it through an acid and bleach the minerals out. The tectonic plates will be fine.....

Not sure what it is you're angling at.

reply to post by stumason


The chemicals used are highly toxic and destroy sea life and sea flora these islands depend upon and are vital to sustain themselves. The enviromental impact for our Pacific islanders will be huge with long term affects.

Rare minerals are plentiful in South America, Indonesia and Afghanistan....go there!

reply to post by CincyFreedom


In Canada the Chinese have huge interest In the Alberta tar sands It was offered to the US first but at the time the US had little interest in it until china was interested in the majority of it.
As far as the Japanese go do we really want to start destroying the ocean floor for resources cant they start some innovative way of recycling the products that have already been produced.

The dirty secrets of being green.

This vid from Channel 4 New in the UK shows just how enviromentally damaging mining for rare earth materials is, from you hybrid car to your wonderful useless wind turbines.