Japan just discovered 16 million tons of rare earth metals.

[ithinktheymad]

Wow I'd imagine that takes quite a bit of leverage away from North Korea.

 

[VivaRevolution]

The find is being called a "semi-infinite" amount, enough to supply the world for hundreds of years. China previously had the stranglehold on such metals.

Quote:
A new finding that could change the global economy

The newly discovered deposit is enough to "supply these metals on a semi-infinite basis to the world," the study's authors wrote in the study.

There's enough yttrium to meet the global demand for 780 years, dysprosium for 730 years, europium for 620 years, and terbium for 420 years.

The cache lies off of Minamitori Island, about 1,150 miles southeast of Tokyo. It's within Japan's exclusive economic zone, so the island nation has the sole rights to the resources there.



"This is a game changer for Japan," Jack Lifton, a founding principal of a market-research firm called Technology Metals Research, told The Wall Street Journal. "The race to develop these resources is well underway."

Japan started seeking its own rare-earth mineral deposits after China withheld shipments of the substances amid a dispute over islands that both countries claim as their own, Reuters reported in 2014.

Previously, China reduced its export quotas of rare earth minerals in 2010, pushing prices up as much as 10%, The Journal reports. China was forced to start exporting more of the minerals again after the dispute was taken up at the World Trade Organization.
Rare-earth minerals found in Japan in a 'semi-infinite' deposit - Business Insider

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/12/japa...n-pacific.html

Shit, if someone would burn Afghanistan's opium fields, we wouldn't have a reason to be there now.

 

[cottagecheesefan]

Humans pretending 600 years is "infinite" says something.

well, with the way things are going, that gives us more than enough time to start mining asteroids, teraforming planets, and mining them as well.

 

[Deleted member 457759]

This is very significant and great for Japan and the west. China holds most of the world's rare earth metals and a few years ago stated that the won't play politics with it(which is bullshit) accept for Japan, basically. They hate Japan lol.

The Japanese must be laughing their asses off about this.

 

[Amerikuracana]

well, with the way things are going, that gives us more than enough time to start mining asteroids, teraforming planets, and mining them as well.

Teraforming planets?

Lol

 

[cottagecheesefan]

Teraforming planets?

Lol

at the rate technology is moving, you don't find that feasible?

 

[Quipling]

And the odds of that RARE unevenly distributed element being clumped together in practically "infinite" quantity on a tiny little Island, only to be discovered just now, just sounds pretty preposterous.

Rare earth is a name, dummy. Not a description.

 

[orangecuse]

The Department of Offense needs to get on this ASAP.

 

[Amerikuracana]

at the rate technology is moving, you don't find that feasible?

No.

 

[cottagecheesefan]

No.

dang. I peg you as one of those cup half full guys. Lots of good sci fi and even stuff like popular science magazine that chimes in on teraforming. I see it starting in the next 100-150 years. With things like the Falcon Heavy becoming so precise. Launch a few satilites near a planet or moon, then shoot out deployable greenhouses and drones, start to form an atmosphere. Seem pretty realistic to me.

There are small island that generate their own atmosphere/rain system. Even if we don't transform an entire planet, we can create mini atmospheres and then build around them.

 

[Orgasmo]

It's good news whenever new resources are discovered, but I gotta be that party pooper. There are major technical challenges to extracting these rare earth metals, since they sitting on the seabed rather than on land. The cost to mine them would be enormous compared to open pit mining. The deposits are also close to 1,000 nautical miles off the Japanese coast, further adding to the cost. I don't know if it's even economically feasible to actually go after the deposits.

 

[GSP_37]

at the rate technology is moving, you don't find that feasible?

One of those filthy rich billionaires needs to fund some nerds to study Star Trek movies to figure out how they did it.

 

[Amerikuracana]

dang. I peg you as one of those cup half full guys. Lots of good sci fi and even stuff like popular science magazine that chimes in on teraforming. I see it starting in the next 100-150 years. With things like the Falcon Heavy becoming so precise. Launch a few satilites near a planet or moon, then shoot out deployable greenhouses and drones, start to form an atmosphere. Seem pretty realistic to me.

There are small island that generate their own atmosphere/rain system. Even if we don't transform an entire planet, we can create mini atmospheres and then build around them.

It would take thousands and thousands and thousands of years to make a dent.

 

[Amerikuracana]

One of those filthy rich billionaires needs to fund some nerds to study Star Trek movies to figure out how they did it.

They didn't do it lol.

They did have a mega-structure "Dyson sphere" in the TNG episode where Scotty returns.. Those things will not exist. They require too much matter, would take a billion years to build, at least, and stars are not infinite so they don't make sense. Better to travel through space one the tech exists.

 

[GSP_37]

They didn't do it lol.

They did have a mega-structure "Dyson sphere" in the TNG episode where Scotty returns.. Those things will not exist. They require too much matter, would take a billion years to build, at least, and stars are not infinite so they don't make sense. Better to travel through space one the tech exists.

I thought the planet they sent Spock to for Search for Spock was terraformed.

 

[cottagecheesefan]

One of those filthy rich billionaires needs to fund some nerds to study Star Trek movies to figure out how they did it.

That is already going on. I have read Popular Science for over a decade, and there is so much awesome stuff out there. Stuff like that throws off capitalism tho, if it is a big enough game changer.

It would take thousands and thousands and thousands of years to make a dent.

If you incorporate things like specific algae and insects that facilitate that type of growth, I don't think it would take that long.

 

[Amerikuracana]

That is already going on. I have read Popular Science for over a decade, and there is so much awesome stuff out there. Stuff like that throws off capitalism tho, if it is a big enough game changer.




If you incorporate things like specific algae and insects that facilitate that type of growth, I don't think it would take that long.

Insects? Do you realize the scale of what you speak of? And uh, if insects could live, would likely be life already.

 

[cottagecheesefan]

Insects? Do you realize the scale of what you speak of? And uh, if insects could live, would likely be life already.

I am talking about within the deployable greenhouses with hydroponic systems, as they start creating atmpshere. With genetic engineering becoming a real thing, we could create insects and algae that form symbiotic relationships with plant life to start forming an atmosphere.

 

[Amerikuracana]

I am talking about within the deployable greenhouses with hydroponic systems, as they start creating atmpshere. With genetic engineering becoming a real thing, we could create insects and algae that form symbiotic relationships with plant life to start forming an atmosphere.

I understand. The planet would be have to be very, very close to being able to support life to do anything useful within 100,000 years. If the planet cannot support life, do you have pots for the algea? Houses for the bugs? That would be a lot of pots, you know, to cover half the surface of a planet.

 

[Lead]

So now that there is a "near infinite" amount of this stuff, are they really still rare?