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Quasi-Infinite Deposits of Rare-Earth Metals Found Underneath Japanese Waters

Raevenlord

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Rare-earth minerals are a bunch of pesky substances that are paramount in many applications - the most important of which, by TPU readers' and news editors' standards, is the enablement of high-tech circuits and applications. Located on the seabed of Japan's shores, in a roughly 965-square-mile Pacific Ocean seabed near Minamitorishima Island, the deposits contain more than 16 million tons of rare-earth oxides, according to a study published in Nature Publishing Group's Scientific Reports.

That's equivalent, researchers say, to 780 years' worth of yttrium supply (used for LEDs, phosphors, electrodes, superconductors...), 620 years of europium (used as dopant in lasers, or as a red phosphor in television sets and fluorescent lamps), 420 years of terbium (used in solid state devices and fuel cells) and 730 years of dysprosium (used for its high thermal neutron absorption in nuclear reactors' control rods, of all things). That's why they're ailing this a "semi-infinite" trove of rare-earth materials.





Calling something infinite is already debatable enough, but semi-infinite almost reaches that point - that's true, surely, considering our own life expectancy and the amount of rare-metals we use today, but I'd think we as a species would love to be here for more than some mere 420 years. The discovery should at least bring some more competitive pricing to the rare-earth materials market, though, which was seemingly cornered (and still is, until Japan can actually get to those resources, which won't be easy) by the world's greatest supplier, China, who increased prices ten-fold. A consortium of Japanese government-backed entities, companies and researchers plans to conduct an extraction feasibility test within the next five years.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 

the54thvoid

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One word.

Godzilla.

If you're going to start messing with the waters off Japan, well, you'd better expect monsters.
 
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One word.

Godzilla.

If you're going to start messing with the waters off Japan, well, you'd better expect monsters.
It's probably there, due to the decayed chard carcusis of Godzilla's fallen foes, ,,from when he was a kid.
 
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Good to see that China won't have a monopoly on these rare-earth metals.

It also makes me wonder though what would happen if this type of discovery were made in the South China Sea, given the militarization and disputed ground claims...
 
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Good to see that China won't have a monopoly on these rare-earth metals.

It also makes me wonder though what would happen if this type of discovery were made in the South China Sea, given the militarization and disputed ground claims...

The place could become a battlefield... If they don't just bomb the crap out of it
 

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Miners gobbling this up in 3, 2, 1! (And you know which miners I'm talking about ;) )
 
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I hope they can mine without adding to the massive damage that's already there. But more important is cheaper computer products this may provide. : )
 
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Well damn I hope they don't find a way to invade Japan now for those piles of cash sitting at the bottom of the ocean.
 

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Good to see that China won't have a monopoly on these rare-earth metals.

It also makes me wonder though what would happen if this type of discovery were made in the South China Sea, given the militarization and disputed ground claims...

No i bet other country's will not get away with taking it like they took other country's.
 

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Hmmmm, maybe we will see another Japanese mining operation like the old Battleship Island?
 
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Oh yeah, don't hesitate, don't think twice, and completely ignore the impending and inescapable environmental collapse that has claimed every civilization previous to ours, and just extract those resource as fast as possible. Oh, and don't forget to really increase the profit margin by making the public and the environment assume the costs of those "externalities" (environmental damage, worker's health, etc). After all, some ambiguous, unnameable "They" will magically invent some equally ambiguous and unnameable technology, that will magically save everyone, right? I mean, that's got to be true since it's what everyone secretly believe, right?
 
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FreedomEclipse

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No i bet other country's will not get away with taking it like they took other country's.

Well, the USA did manage to get the oil from Saddam Hussein in IraQ.... They got away with that pretty well id say.... With the finesse and grace of a ballet dancer.


Unfortunately the US are busy deciding how to tackle Russia and Syria so arent available for a sneaky full scale invasion.
 

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Well, the USA did manage to get the oil from Saddam Hussein in IraQ.... They got away with that pretty well id say.... With the finesse and grace of a ballet dancer.

Not that stupid argument again. Have you ever bothered to check how much oil does the US import from Irak? The information is public domain, one google search away.
 

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Oh yeah, don't hesitate, don't think twice, and completely ignore the impending and inescapable environmental collapse that has claimed every civilization previous to ours, and just extract those resource as fast as possible. Oh, and don't forget to really increase the profit margin by making the public and the environment assume the costs of those "externalities" (environmental damage, worker's health, etc). After all, some ambiguous, unnameable "They" will magically invent some equally ambiguous and unnameable at this time technology, that will magically save everyone, right? I mean, that's got to be true since it's what everyone secretly believe, right?
You realize all your computer devices use rare earth minerals, right. Instead of getting on a soapbox using your electronic device, throw them all away and stop posting this nonsense, unless you are prepared to fix it. You are just being duplicitous and contributing to said problem you are concerned about.
 

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Looks like the US has some freedom to spread to Japan.
 
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thank god, trade with japan is much better for us then china. looks like one lese strangle hold the chinese have on the U.S. economy.
 
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Oh yeah, don't hesitate, don't think twice, and completely ignore the impending and inescapable environmental collapse that has claimed every civilization previous to ours, and just extract those resource as fast as possible. Oh, and don't forget to really increase the profit margin by making the public and the environment assume the costs of those "externalities" (environmental damage, worker's health, etc). After all, some ambiguous, unnameable "They" will magically invent some equally ambiguous and unnameable at this time technology, that will magically save everyone, right? I mean, that's got to be true since it's what everyone secretly believe, right?

Take your far-left, regressive, ignorant, ideals somewhere else troll!
 
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It's probably there, due to the decayed chard carcusis of Godzilla's fallen foes, ,,from when he was a kid.

Or maybe it was where he had his own personal litterbox.... Who knows?

Competiton is always good, let's hope something feasable can be made of it.
 
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You realize all your computer devices use rare earth minerals, right. Instead of getting on a soapbox using your electronic device, throw them all away and stop posting this nonsense, unless you are prepared to fix it. You are just being duplicitous and contributing to said problem you are concerned about.
You realize pointing out my personal deficiencies and shortcomings does absolutely nothing to counter or disprove my argument, right? In fact, I could be the biggest personal hypocrite in the world, and it still wouldn't be of consequence to my argument....go after me, besides being a shortcut to thinking, is attacking the messenger, not the message.
 

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This explains why Japan is revisiting its "defensive" military doctrine. They're worried China could try something. Another eastern "nine-dash line".
 
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You realize pointing out my personal deficiencies and shortcomings does absolutely nothing to counter or disprove my argument, right? In fact, I could be the biggest personal hypocrite in the world, and it still wouldn't be of consequence to my argument....go after me, besides being a shortcut to thinking, is attacking the messenger, not the message.
Fair enough. I just wanted to make sure you understood that you weren’t fixing or providing a solution with your comment. Blasting a system with no solution isn’t helpful.

Really, there is none, other than going back to pre-industrial era. You can only recover so much with recycling. Yeah, no shortcut here, I’ve thought about it. :)
 
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