Industrial Minerals


Japan deep sea rare earths exploitable “in three years”

20 July 2012

by Siobhan Lismore

Oil and gas drilling methods put forward as route to extraction

Keywords: rare earths, Japan, drilling

Japan will be able to exploit its deep sea rare earths within three years, if the country works quickly, University of Tokyo Professor Yasuhiro Kato claimed Friday.

The scientist, who led the team that discovered the rare earths in the Pacific seabed 2,000 km from Tokyo in June, proposed using oil and gas drilling methods to...