Industrial Minerals online news editor speaks to BBC about Japan Rare Earths
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Industrial Minerals’ online news editor and rare earths expert Mark Watts today appeared on BBC news programme Today, on BBC Radio 4. The programme, which is listened to by approximately 6.6m people each morning, invited Mark to speak about the recent vast rare earth discovery made by Japanese scientists on the Pacific Ocean Floor.
He was interviewed by Dominic Laurie, one of the UK’s best-known financial journalists.
“While this discovery is significant in terms of increasing global rare earth reserves, it will do little to alleviate supply shortages and soaring prices in the near term,” Mark explains.
“The costs of mining at over three kilometres below sea level will make these deposits difficult to commercialise, while questions still remain over mining rights, extraction technology and potential environmental damage.
Japan has spread its net wide to tackle the issue of rare earths supply, backing mining projects in India, Vietnam and Kazakhstan, and advancing the development of rare earth recycling technology.”
ARTICLE BELOW WRITTEN BY MARK WATTS ON 4 JULY 2011 ON JAPANESE DISCOVERY
Japanese researchers find vast rare earth deposits on ocean floor
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Japanese researchers claim to have found billions of tonnes of “readily recoverable” rare earth elements on the Pacific Ocean floor.
The geologists, led by the University of Tokyo’s Yasuhiro Kato, said up to 100bn tonnes were present in sea mud at depths of 3,500-6,000 metres.
“We show that rare-earth elements and yttrium are readily recovered from the mud by simple acid leaching, and suggest that deep-sea mud constitutes a highly promising huge resource for these elements,” the researchers said in an article in UK-based journal Nature Geoscience.
Resource-poor Japan is the world’s leading importer of rare earths and has backed several strategies to reduce its reliance on material from China.
It was estimated that an area of just one square kilometer near the team’s sample sites could provide a fifth of the world’s annual rare earth consumption, which is estimated at over 130,000 tonnes.
Especially high concentrations of rare earth elements were found close to the island groups of Hawaii and Tahiti.
“Uptake of rare-earth elements and yttrium by mineral phases such as hydrothermal iron-oxyhydroxides and phillipsite seems to be responsible for their high concentration,” said the report.
The Japanese government has committed 19.7bn yen ($235m.) to establishing overseas rare earths mines, while Japanese companies are developing projects in India, Vietnam and Kazakhstan.
About 7bn yen ($87m.) has also been set aside to study undersea mineral deposits containing manganese, cobalt, nickel, platinum and certain rare earth elements.
Kato told Reuters that the level of radioactive elements uranium and thorium was found to be one fifth of those in deposit found on land.
"Sea mud can be brought up to ships and we can extract rare earths right there using simple acid leaching," he told the newswire. "Using diluted acid, the process is fast, and within a few hours we can extract 80-90% of rare earths from the mud.”
No information was given on when extraction from the sea beds could feasibly begin, or how the costs would compare to conventional land mining.
“While this discovery is significant in terms of increasing global rare earth reserves, it will do little to alleviate supply shortages and soaring prices in the near term,” Mark explains.
“The costs of mining at over three kilometres below sea level will make these deposits difficult to commercialise, while questions still remain over mining rights, extraction technology and potential environmental damage.
Japan has spread its net wide to tackle the issue of rare earths supply, backing mining projects in India, Vietnam and Kazakhstan, and advancing the development of rare earth recycling technology.”
ARTICLE BELOW WRITTEN BY MARK WATTS ON 4 JULY 2011 ON JAPANESE DISCOVERY
Japanese researchers find vast rare earth deposits on ocean floor
________________________________________
Japanese researchers claim to have found billions of tonnes of “readily recoverable” rare earth elements on the Pacific Ocean floor.
The geologists, led by the University of Tokyo’s Yasuhiro Kato, said up to 100bn tonnes were present in sea mud at depths of 3,500-6,000 metres.
“We show that rare-earth elements and yttrium are readily recovered from the mud by simple acid leaching, and suggest that deep-sea mud constitutes a highly promising huge resource for these elements,” the researchers said in an article in UK-based journal Nature Geoscience.
Resource-poor Japan is the world’s leading importer of rare earths and has backed several strategies to reduce its reliance on material from China.
It was estimated that an area of just one square kilometer near the team’s sample sites could provide a fifth of the world’s annual rare earth consumption, which is estimated at over 130,000 tonnes.
Especially high concentrations of rare earth elements were found close to the island groups of Hawaii and Tahiti.
“Uptake of rare-earth elements and yttrium by mineral phases such as hydrothermal iron-oxyhydroxides and phillipsite seems to be responsible for their high concentration,” said the report.
The Japanese government has committed 19.7bn yen ($235m.) to establishing overseas rare earths mines, while Japanese companies are developing projects in India, Vietnam and Kazakhstan.
About 7bn yen ($87m.) has also been set aside to study undersea mineral deposits containing manganese, cobalt, nickel, platinum and certain rare earth elements.
Kato told Reuters that the level of radioactive elements uranium and thorium was found to be one fifth of those in deposit found on land.
"Sea mud can be brought up to ships and we can extract rare earths right there using simple acid leaching," he told the newswire. "Using diluted acid, the process is fast, and within a few hours we can extract 80-90% of rare earths from the mud.”
No information was given on when extraction from the sea beds could feasibly begin, or how the costs would compare to conventional land mining.
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