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Japan Team Maps 'Semi-Infinite' Trove of Rare Earth Elements (japantimes.co.jp)
schwit1 quotes a report from The Japan Times: Japanese researchers have mapped vast reserves of rare earth elements in deep-sea mud, enough to feed global demand on a "semi-infinite basis," according to a new study. The deposit, found within Japan's exclusive economic zone waters, contains more than 16 million tons of the elements needed to build high-tech products ranging from mobile phones to electric vehicles, according to the study, released Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports. The team, comprised of several universities, businesses and government institutions, surveyed the western Pacific Ocean near Minamitori Island. In a sample area of the mineral-rich region, the team's survey estimated 1.2 million tons of "rare earth oxide" is deposited there, said the study, conducted jointly by Waseda University's Yutaro Takaya and the University of Tokyo's Yasuhiro Kato, among others. The finding extrapolates that a 2,500-sq. km region off the southern Japanese island should contain 16 million tons of the valuable elements, and "has the potential to supply these metals on a semi-infinite basis to the world," the study said.
There goes asteroid mining.
The Duped story is the one before this one. WTF editors .. get your shit together
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
I thought Slashdot's new owner would fix this shit by now.
Either infinite or not. If not infinite, then not "semi-infinite" either. As physical and real, not infinite.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I feel like the term "semi-infinite" attached to anything remotely valuable _vastly_ underestimates humankind's capacity for consumption. On a separate note... what does "semi-infinite" even mean? Half of an infinite number is still infinite, at least under the general understanding of infinity.
Please ignore any obvious problems in this post.
And we all thought black gold would flow forever at the beginning of last century...
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Time to break out the Hughes Glomar Explorer. It's original CIA cover story was mining from the ocean floor for rare minerals. Actually using it for that purpose would be sweet irony, instead of trying to raise sunken Soviet subs.
Is that a bit like semi-pregnant?
Finally dig for something we can use instead of a broken Russian sub.
mfwright@batnet.com
Am I the only person who's first reaction was to think "AHA! So mining these rare earth metals are what will awaken Godzilla"
Would "semi-pregnant" mean your ultrasound shows a healthy baby but with no legs?
"Semi-infinite" in the featured article is hyperbole, but it does mean several lifetimes' worth at present consumption: "The report said there were hundreds of years of reserves of most of the rare earths in the area surveyed."
With many sea-based species already being under high stress would the environmental impact of such mining push many of those in the area to extinction ?
China will not be able to have their monopoly. I would not be surprised if China decides to declare that area to belong to them. It would be in keeping with their other aggressive actions.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
is the Chinese leadership lamenting the loss of the pressure point they thought they had to influence the world.
Maybe somebody just lost a sub on the floor of the Pacific. If the Chinese suddenly break out a refurbished Glomar Explorer soon that will be our answer.
Either infinite or not. If not infinite, then not "semi-infinite" either. As physical and real, not infinite.
Ah, but according to Slashdot, they found two semi-infinite troves. So technically that's just one infinite trove!
If Hilary is someone you want to represent all women and therefore project hate against her as hate against all womanhood, then you must hate women very much and look upon them as evil corrupt creatures. That's what the association would signify at least. Next time make a better choice on projection tactics, this one is a dud.
EOM
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
To mine it all up, that's all we have to do, destroy to ocean and the marina animals and sushi fish living there, I'm sure they won't mind, Its not like the animals can do anything about it anyways.
Builds more islands and claims that it is now part of their territory.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...
This is old news.
A Chinese scholar just discovered a long lost 14th century docx file declaring the sea around Japan as Chinese sovereign territory, pushing aside a Korean waving a 15th century PDF file claiming it was theirs.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
... we're too busy looking for more decomposed dinosaurs and plants to burn to be looking ahead like the Japanese.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
So, rare earth elements aren't so rare after all then.
My biggest concern is: what is mining this resource going to do to the environment? Japan's already screwed up the northern Pacific with Fukushima to the point I'm concerned about eating Alaskan Salmon, or any north Pacific fish, what is their mining of this sea silt going to do to further damage the Pacific Ocean? The places on land that they these elements are pretty fucked environmentally, and that damage can't be carried around the world on air currents like ocean pollution can.
--- Keep the choice with the user..
Come on Slashdot.
Yep, some people should not be allowed to string words together in nonsensical patterns.
You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.
#DeleteFacebook
I don't know, but this topic comes up when you search for "semi-infinite" on Google right now.
#DeleteFacebook
A citizen of Pl-oar-tg'z (closest we can write to the actual name) claims his second-male parent gave the whole planet to him/her on its 49021'th birthday.
#DeleteFacebook
Oh, let me try!
dry water
solid vacuum
half-hole
quasi-stationary
microsoft windows
Wait...
#DeleteFacebook
Though not in the summary, I heard they also found DILITHIUM SALTS, from which the 4-dimensional dilithium crystals can be grown! Just add an adequate supply of antimatter, and... stars, HERE WE COME! I am going to get my application in to Star Fleet Academy, like... TODAY!
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
Not only are rare earths not really rare, and even if like in Mongolia this might be a "deposit" that is a bit more concentrated to make it economical, the REAL problem with the extraction of the metals is how dirty and horrible the process is, which is why it is almost exclusively done in places with little or no environmental protection as otherwise it would just be too expensive...
But sure, lets extract in a place like Japan, and lets also do it under water in the ocean, because surely that A) won't be massively more expensive environment to work in, and B) won't have any oceanic environmental impact at all...
Looking statistically China produces 90% of all production in the world, and of that 70% is from the one place in inner Mongolia. Oddly Australia seems to produce quite a bit (relatively speaking compared to the rest) which surprised me a bit. Of course they have some pretty vastly unpopulated areas also which might make it publicly tolerable.