• News
    • Tech News
    • AI
  • Gadgets
    • Apple
    • iPhone
  • Gaming
    • Playstation
    • Xbox
  • Science
    • News
    • Space
  • Streaming
    • Netflix
  • Vehicles
    • Car News
  • Social Media
    • WhatsApp
    • YouTube
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
TikTok
Snapchat
WhatsApp
Submit Your Content
Japanese researchers hit the jackpot after discovering 230,000,000 tons of rare mineral that could make them billions

Home> News

Published 13:00 26 Jan 2025 GMT

Japanese researchers hit the jackpot after discovering 230,000,000 tons of rare mineral that could make them billions

Cobalt and nickel minerals were among the rare minerals

Rebekah Jordan

Rebekah Jordan

Rare minerals discovered in Japan could be a game changer for their economic security.

A group of researchers in Japan uncovered a cache of rare minerals in the seabed around Minami-Tori-shima island harbours.

The Nippon Foundation and the University of Tokyo conducted a survey which discovered around 610,000 metric tons of cobalt and 740,000 metric tons of nickel.

Both cobalt and nickel are key materials for producing electric car batteries so this could do wonders for the Japanese economy.

Advert

Between April and June this year, researchers investigated 100 seabed sites, using probes to reach depths of 17,000 to 18,700 feet.

What they found were magnesium nodules which are packed with these valuable minerals.

Magnesium nodules are thought to have formed over millions of years.

The Nippon Foundation
The Nippon Foundation

Advert

Interestingly, experts believe that many of them developed around the fossilised teeth of the prehistoric Megalodon shark, which lived around 23 to 3.6 million years ago.

Now, the plan is to excavate ‘three million tons annually’ from the deposits, according to Yasuhiro Kato, a professor of resource geology at the University of Tokyo.

He claimed that this method would minimise the impact on the marine environment whilst several thousand tons of nodules daily.

But the jackpot win from the discovery was the mineral cornucopia which means big things

Advert

for Japan’s electric vehicle industry.

“Ultimately, we expect that our research outcomes will help boost Japan’s growth by establishing a domestic supply chain stretching from ‘resource-mining’ to ‘manufacturing’, and make Japan a science-technology, and ocean-oriented nation in a true sense of word,” the University of Tokyo wrote in a press release.

The Nippon Foundation
The Nippon Foundation

The team mentioned that they want to ‘collaborate with researchers of multiple disciplines’ in the future to develop more ‘environmentally-friendly products/technologies or new high-performance materials, by using various critical metals created from the new resources’.

Advert

Outside of Japan, the US has experienced its own modern-day gold rush in Wyoming.

A treasure trove of oxides of neodymium, praseodymium, samarium, dysprosium and terbium were all uncovered - all of which are widely used in today's technology.

We're talking smartphones, hybrid cars and aircrafts, as well as more common things like light bulbs and lamps.

The mining company behind the dig, American Rare Earths, said that this finding has ‘exceeded their wildest dreams.'

Advert

While China currently dominates global manufacturing with a 31% share, these new discoveries could reshape the landscape.

And other countries like Japan and the US have a shot at becoming major players in the resource market.

Featured Image Credit: The Nippon Foundation/MARCUS YAM/LOS ANGELES TIMES/Getty
Science
Japan

Advert

Advert

Advert

  • Powerful solar storm that would cost $600,000,000,000 in damages could hit Earth in 2025
  • Researchers make huge discovery hinting that Mercury could be hiding 11-mile underground layer of diamonds
  • Discovery of over 2,000,000,000 tons of rare Earth mineral found in US could make country the new 'world leader'
  • Reason why Japan won't sell their $26,290,780,000 discovery of rare mineral

Choose your content:

11 hours ago
12 hours ago
15 hours ago
  • 11 hours ago

    Trump administration issues response to CNN 'promoting' app that tracks ICE sightings

    The app lets you locate and avoid immigration agents

    News
  • 12 hours ago

    Trump brands DOGE 'the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon' amid deportation threats

    Trump has issued a new threat following his split from Musk

    News
  • 12 hours ago

    Scientists discover horrifying find in human semen for the first time ever

    With more to be revealed as studies go on

    Science
  • 15 hours ago

    What will happen if Donald Trump signs bill that approves dystopian $10,000,000,000 venture Elon Musk opposes

    The SpaceX & Tesla CEO won't be happy, that's for sure

    News