Over 200 million tons of rare metals found near remote Tokyo island
More than 200 million tons of manganese nodules rich in rare metals exist on the seabed near Minamitorishima, a remote Tokyo island, the Nippon Foundation and the University of Tokyo said Friday.
The nonprofit organization and the national university discovered a huge amount of the sea-bottom mineral concentrations that abundantly contain rare metals such as cobalt and nickel --- both essential for lithium-ion batteries — in a survey that covered an area at depths of some 5,000 meters in the country's exclusive economic zone off the Pacific island. The research team, led by Yasuhiro Kato, a professor at the university, estimates that there are 234 million tons of such nodules in the 100-square-kilometer survey area and that the amount of nickel in them is enough to support Japan's consumption for 75 years while the amount of cobalt is enough for around 11 years. The volumes are believed to be enough for commercial use, including costs for extraction and refining. The team plans to start extracting 2,500 tons of the mineral resource per day in an experimental project by the end of March 2026.
The spherical nodules, which measure up to tens of centimeters in diameter, grow when iron and manganese oxides dissolved in seawater precipitate around their nuclei, like stones and shark teeth. They also contain copper. The large amount of manganese nodule concentrations were initially discovered during a 2016 survey of the same area conducted by a team that included members from the university and other bodies.
A detailed sampling survey to determine deposit estimates was conducted between late April and early June this year. “The University of Tokyo has found a wonderful mineral vein in the EEZ of Japan, a resource-poor country," Nippon Foundation Chairman Yohei Sasakawa said. "We're ready for providing them for industry use as soon as possible." @It's extremely important to give birth to a new ocean industry in the context of creating innovations," Kato stressed.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/06/22/japan/science-health/tokyo-island-rare-metals-find/
This is how Godzilla will be released, and it will go on to ravage Tokyo.
My advice: Don't mine the Deep sea ore... and risk waking up the monsters.
OH NO!! Godzirra!!!
Massive rare resource deposit you say? Time for a good ol' fashion American meddling in Japan's next election so we can start a proxy war over those sweet sweet assets.
I mean c'mon folks! Blackrock lives matter!
China: “Your Island? I think you mean ‘my island’. We even have ancient maps we totally didn’t fabricate that says it’s ours”
We finally gonna be doing deep sea mining? Shoulda been doing that decades ago.
Sakuradite is back on the menu, boys!
...No one? Only I watched Code Geass?
This have been known for at least 50 years, the Pacific is full of these nodules. The trick is to get hold of them at this great depth, bring them to the surface and process them profitably.
hahaha. Consulting a map, it seems that Island is rather remote on the half way point between Taipei and Honolulu, South South West of Tokyo and Micronesia.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/Japan_Relief_Map_of_Land_and_Seabed.png/1200px-Japan_Relief_Map_of_Land_and_Seabed.png
Hrrrrm interesting timing