Reference News Network, January 13 report: According to the French newspaper Le Figaro's website on January 10, Japan will launch a deep-sea rare earth exploration project, with an exploration area depth of 6,000 meters. This is the first of its kind in the world.

A Japanese deep-sea scientific drilling ship "Earth" is preparing to sail towards the South Bird Island. The island is located in the Pacific Ocean, 1,900 kilometers southeast of Tokyo, and the surrounding seabed contains rich reserves of key mineral resources.

The Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology has been continuously advancing its exploration plan for 15 years, exploring submarine sulfides, cobalt-rich crusts, and rare earth muds within Japan's coastal waters and approved exploration blocks by the International Seabed Authority. The Japanese side emphasized that this is the first step toward "domestic rare earth industrialization."

This exploration mission will last until February 14. During this time, the "Earth" will deploy drilling pipes, and the extraction device at the end of the pipe will reach the seafloor to collect rare earth-rich sediment samples. A year later, the project team plans to start a large-scale pilot mining, aiming for a daily output of 350 tons, and conduct a more accurate assessment of mineral reserves and the economic feasibility of mining.

Research by the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology shows that the sediment samples collected from the 5,800-meter-deep sea near the South Bird Island have a rare earth concentration 20 to 30 times higher than China's land-based rare earth mines. The mineral resources in the South Bird Island area alone are sufficient to meet global demand for hundreds of years. In April 2018, researchers published an article in "Scientific Reports" stating that this 2,500-square-kilometer seabed at a depth of 5,000 meters contains about 160 million tons of rare earth resources. (Translated by Wang Zhongju)

Original source: toutiao.com/article/7594817464903533110/

Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.