Rare earth elements are at the heart of this globally unique but controversial program.
Japan appears to be on schedule with its plans for deep-sea mining. Last summer, the government announced that it would extract initial samples near the coral island of Minami-Torishima. The task was assigned to the research vessel Chikyu, which began its mission two weeks ago (an archive image of the vessel is used as the header image). According to The Japan Times, the test drilling was successful, and Chikyu is now on its return journey, carrying sludge rich in raw materials recovered from a depth of around 6,000 meters.
The Japanese government describes the mission as unprecedented worldwide. Analyses will now determine the actual concentration of rare earth elements in the recovered material, the primary focus of the project. The results will indicate whether the resource-poor industrial nation could reduce its dependence on rare earth superpower China through deep-sea mining. To facilitate extraction and transport, a processing facility on the island was announced for late 2025. Minami-Torishima lies nearly 2,000 kilometers from Japan’s mainland.
In our background article, we explore the controversies surrounding deep-sea mining.
Photo: Aflo Images via Canva