Japan finds high-value rare earths in deep-sea mining project

Japan has identified multiple medium and heavy rare earth elements needed for high-tech products during a deep-sea exploration project aimed at securing critical mineral supplies, a government-affiliated research institute said Friday.

The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology said rare earth elements extracted from seabed mud samples consisted of about 54% medium and heavy rare earths, including yttrium, gadolinium and dysprosium. Light rare earths, including neodymium, accounted for the remaining 46%, Kyodo News reported.

The agency did not disclose the total amount of rare earth elements recovered from the samples.

The findings will pave the way for a full-scale mining test in the same area for about a month beginning in February. The government plans to evaluate the costs and feasibility of commercial production by March 2028.

The government will later assess the costs and benefits of industrialization by March 2028.

"It is extremely valuable for us to see yttrium especially, as its value has been soaring rapidly in the global market," project leader Shoichi Ishii of the Cabinet Office said.

Japan has been seeking to diversify its rare earth supplies because most of its imports come from China. Relations between the two countries deteriorated last year after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's comments about how Japan might respond to a crisis involving Taiwan prompted Beijing to restrict exports of dual-use goods, including rare earths, Kyodo said.

Rare earth elements are used in products ranging from electronics and defense systems to renewable energy technologies and electric vehicles.

JAMSTEC's research vessel Chikyu collected about 50 metric tons of seabed mud from a depth of about 5,600 meters (18,372 feet) near Minamitori Island, about 1,900 kilometers (1,180 miles) southeast of Tokyo, during January and February as part of a Cabinet Office project launched in fiscal 2018.

The team plans to collect about 350 metric tons of mud a day for about a month beginning in February 2027. The material will be transported to Minamitori Island for dewatering before being refined into rare earth elements on Japan's main island.

The cost of extraction remains a major challenge because personnel and equipment must be transported to the remote island by air and other means, according to Kyodo.