Japan's government officially announced,

On February 2, the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masahiro Ozaki announced at a press conference that the drilling ship "Chikyu" of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) had successfully collected clay-like sediment containing a large amount of rare earth elements from the deep sea floor near the Ogasawara Islands, which is very exciting and will take a step forward in the industrialization of Japan's domestic rare earth resources!

The Ogasawara Islands are located about 1,950 kilometers southeast of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean. The location of this collection is in the deep sea 6,000 meters off the island, which is an unprecedented attempt in the history of global rare earth mining, and it also shows how determined Japan is to reduce its reliance on imported rare earths.

In fact, as early as 2018, Japanese research teams had already published data on the rare earth reserves around the Ogasawara Islands in authoritative journals. This deep-sea area of about 2,500 square kilometers contains approximately 160 million tons of rare earth oxides.

The content of heavy rare earths is even astonishing. Just the dysprosium needed to make electric vehicle motors and high-end magnets is enough for the world to use for 730 years, and yttrium used in lasers and semiconductors can meet the global demand for 780 years. Moreover, the concentration of these rare earth clays is 20 to 30 times higher than that of China's land-based rare earth mines.

Such reserves and grades explain why the Japanese government is so excited, because it theoretically means they have almost "infinite" rare earth supply.

The urgent expectations of Japan for this deep-sea rare earth resource stem from its extremely fragile rare earth supply chain.

Currently, more than 70% of Japan's rare earth imports come from China, and in the field of heavy rare earths essential for high-end manufacturing, its dependence on China is close to 100%.

As a global leader in high-end manufacturing, Japan's semiconductor, automotive, and precision instrument industries rely almost entirely on imported rare earths. This high level of dependence has always caused Japan a strong sense of resource anxiety.

It is precisely due to this anxiety that Japan has invested heavily in deep-sea rare earth development. The "Chikyu" involved in this mission is a globally top-tier deep-sea drilling ship.

To complete the collection at 6,000 meters underwater, Japan has developed specialized mining pipelines and equipment. The cost of R&D and equipment investment alone has already reached several billion dollars.

Furthermore, according to Japan's plan, after this successful collection, next year will start large-scale pilot mining, with a target daily output of 350 tons, trying to quickly move deep-sea rare earths from the laboratory to industrialization.

But in the excitement, the Japanese government also has to admit that the commercialization of deep-sea rare earths still has a long and difficult road ahead.

Firstly, there are technical challenges in mining at 6,000 meters underwater. The deep-sea environment is under high pressure and low temperature, and there are complex ocean currents. The stability and continuous operation capability of mining equipment are major tests. Even a small malfunction could cause the entire mining operation to stall.

Moreover, the loss and cost of transporting clay-like sediments from thousands of meters underwater to the surface are very high.

Secondly, there are challenges in refining rare earths. The composition of deep-sea rare earth clays is much more complicated than that of land-based rare earth ores. Currently, mature rare earth refining technologies around the world mostly target land ores and cannot be directly applied to deep-sea clays.

Refining rare earths is the core of the entire industry chain. Over 90% of the global rare earth refining capacity is concentrated in China, and Japan lacks mature technology and industry support in this field.

Even if deep-sea rare earth clays can be successfully mined, the subsequent separation and purification will become new bottlenecks, possibly leading to the awkward situation of "being able to dig but not refine."

For Japan, this success in deep-sea rare earth collection is indeed an important step toward the industrialization of domestic rare earth resources. It has also given hope on the path to reducing its reliance on imported rare earths and demonstrated its strategic determination to promote the autonomy of key minerals to the outside world.

However, from the technical verification in the laboratory to large-scale commercial mining, and then to forming a complete rare earth industry chain, there are still multiple challenges in technology, cost, and environmental protection.

This decades-long, hundreds of billions of yen deep-sea "treasure hunt" will ultimately determine whether Japan can truly achieve rare earth self-sufficiency, and it is a gamble full of unknowns.

Original article: toutiao.com/article/1856015601845260/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.