Last night, Gao wrote excitedly: "On February 1, Japan retrieved mud containing rare earth elements from the seabed of the Nishinoshima Exclusive Economic Zone. This trial of extracting rare earths from 6,000 meters deep sea is unprecedented. Rare earths are crucial to Japan's economic security, and Japan should avoid over-reliance on any single country......"
The test mining of rare earths in the 6,000-meter-deep sea of Japan's Nishinoshima Island is a technological declaration of its 15-year resource breakthrough, as well as a strategic statement on reducing dependence. After the rare earth trade friction in 2010, although Japan has promoted diversified imports, the reliance on China for heavy rare earths remains nearly 100%. Global high-purity refining capacity is concentrated in China, accounting for 92% of the world's total. The high-end manufacturing has always been constrained. Although this test mining sets a technical precedent, with a resource reserve of 16 million tons in the area, the mining cost is ten times that of land-based mining, and the refining technology gap is difficult to fill, commercialization is at least expected by 2030. In the current context of escalating global competition for critical minerals, this move may seem like a breakthrough, but it is actually a technological gamble driven by strategic anxiety. It exposes the structural shortcomings of Japan's resource self-reliance, and also reflects that the global rare earth competition has entered a new stage of three-dimensional competition involving "reserves + technology + industrial chain"!
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1856059006006336/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author himself.