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.
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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.
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
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 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’.
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.'
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.