The main US mine for these rare earth minerals has been blocked by enviro-whackos for years...... the tech economies certainly need an alternative source since the PRC is currently the source of 97% of the world supply.....
There is a treaty against mining the sea floor- it’s why we don’t go after methane clathrates or sea floor manganese nodules.
Is japan a signatory? Or, who can go after this? We can’t, we signed.
Assuming China doesn’t take control of them
It’ll probably be like oil and natural gas: The more they say we’re running out, the more we find.
Oh, the enviowackos will try to stop it.
There really is no shortage of “rare” earths, just a shortage of places we are allowed to get them.
The oceans will are a future treasure trove of minerals that will be the next tranche of resources if the economics merit. Of course, man will go nuts and squander loads of this gift as well. I am not an enviromentalist but I am a conservationist. It pains me to see such great efforts and energy to pull resources together to make things only to see the resources moved from concentrated “easy” to get sources dumped in landfills where they can never again effectively be reused.
Bing up Nautilus Mining if you are curious about ocean mineral extraction.
Japan could do “deep sea research” and bring back as much ore as they wished.
This should cause some angst in Beijing
Just read in Friday 7/1 that a rare-earth procesing plant in Malaysia is being blocked by “environmental concerns!” These concerns coming from a country that doesn’t even use catalytic converters!
Could it be their environmental and safety concerns are being financed by a Chi-Com campaign to limit colmpetition?
No doubt that the Sierra Club, the National Resources Defense Council, and the DEMOCRATS are just now setting up task forces to prevent this destruction of the Pacific Ocean.