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Posted on 02/03/2026 10:52:48 AM PST by yesthatjallen
Japanese researchers have reportedly succeeded in mining mud thought to contain rare earth elements from a seabed some 5,700 meters underwater.
The exploration vessel Chikyu, operated by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, or JAMSTEC, has been conducting a test excavation of the mud since January.
The seabed is within Japan's exclusive economic zone in the Pacific, roughly 150 kilometers southeast of the Japanese island of Minamitorishima.
The test was held under a project led by Japan's Cabinet Office. Officials say the retrieval of mud began last Friday, and work to haul it onto the vessel took place for the first time early on Sunday.
To draw up the mud, a pipe with a mining device at its end was extended to the seabed.
A similar experiment using the device was held four years ago to lift mud from a depth of 2,470 meters off Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at 3.nhk.or.jp ...
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Here we go...
The best of intentions. What could go wrong?
Many things are possible but at what cost? Are we willing to pay the cost?
EPA laws shut down rare earth extraction in the US because the EPA thought the cost, the impact on the “snail darter” was not worth it.
The story of the Snail Darter tells us how stupid the EPA is.
It has been speculated that, once we learn how to mine the sea floor and asteroids with a remote degree of efficiency, there will be no such thing as “rare” any type of minerals including gold and diamonds. It sounds like science fiction but we probably are closer than we think to deep sea mining and bringing asteroids closer to earth orbit to mine.
I use to cruise past the Glomar Explorer back in the day
The.muds around deep.sea hydrothermal vents are.loaded with metal sulfides which hold massive amounts of copper,gold,silver ,zinc and REEs too. Once you can mine the seafloor there is no fundamental limits of copper or.zinc both of which are needed for electrical engineering systems. Zinc air cells are like aluminum air cells they can exceed gasoline in energy density per kg of active mass. While being fully rechargeable. If humans plan to elevate 6 billion people out of energy poverty then we will have to mine copper from the oceans just for the power transmission and distribution alone. You can use aluminum and steel for turbine generators you.need copper for T&D lines especially HVDC types.
Diamonds are not rare the De Beers cartel suppresses the supply to keep prices up and they hold the land rights to most of the source rocks as well.
My current wife is wearing a 3+ karet stone from South Africa that is 100% not De Beers it technically a conflict.stone I went to the mine and picked 10 raw stones which were sent to Israel to be cut then picked the best one for her and sold the other 9. F Dr Beers hate those crooks as a geologist.
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