Japan plans to take the lead in exploration of rare metal resources on the easternmost island

According to Hong Kong’s “Wen Wei Po” website reported on the 4th, Japan plans to start a one-year exploration of the seabed resources in the offshore of the most eastern island “South Bird Island” from April this year to find out if there are rare metals or rare earths. ". According to reports, this plan aims to develop non-exclusive economic marine resources before neighboring countries.

The report said that South Bird Island is located in the center of the Pacific about 2,000 kilometers southeast of Tokyo and is under the jurisdiction of Ogasawara Village, Tokyo. According to the report, the island may have abundant rare metals such as manganese, cobalt, nickel and platinum as well as rare earths, thorium and thorium for electric vehicle engines near the sea floor.

The Japanese authorities expect that they can produce rare earths in the future to get rid of dependence on imports.

It was alleged that Japan’s oil and gas mineral resources agency had previously been surveyed in the area, but the government took over the plan at the end of last year and plans to allocate support for the exploration of the sea area of ​​the island from the 6.8 billion yen subsea mineral resources development budget set last year. We increased the original survey of 20 years to about 40 days.

The report said that since the international excavation rules are likely to be released in July, Japan hopes to make preparations for the mining area as soon as possible in order to compete with neighboring countries. In addition, due to the immature mining technology of cobalt-rich crusts, Japan must also research and develop lower-cost technologies.