Hungry, Japan may mine rare earth

Sinochem New Reuters Japanese scientists have discovered a giant rare earth ore at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, but this finding does not basically constitute a lot for the existing miners of large-scale rare earth projects on land. At present, it is probably only a daydream. News hype is more than actual operation.

Reuters quoted analysts, said the rare earth miners Molycorp, Lynas and Avalon Rare Metals and other companies can temporarily sit back and relax, because the exploitation of the seabed of rare earth resources may take several decades, huge capital investment, the current look is probably only a daydream.

Luisa Moreno, an analyst at Jacob Securities, said: "The idea of ​​'hungry for food' is my first thought. This kind of thing is suitable for news hype, but I don't think it is practical."

The supply of rare earths is responsible for the production of many high-tech products. Japan is trying hard to ensure the supply of rare earths. About 97% of the world's supply of rare earth comes from China. China's tightening of export quotas has led to soaring prices of rare earths, which has caused Japan, a major consumer of rare earths, to suffer heavy losses.

Moreno said: “They (Japanese) are obviously very frustrated and are eager to find alternative sources.” She pointed out that Japan has been trying to recycle rare earths and searching for rare earth mining investment projects worldwide. "They hope they will no longer depend on China. Rare earths are indeed critical to the Japanese economy."

Japan said that the submarine deposits they discovered contain about 80 to 100 billion tons of rare earths, which is larger than any rare earth ore on land. But how to extract these resources from the sea floor, their language is unknown. Japanese scientists say that as long as the minerals are extracted from the seabed, rare earths can be extracted from the mud with acidic substances.

But analysts are not so sure. They pointed out that the separation of rare earths at the commercial level is very difficult and the cost of mining subsea deposits is extremely high.

Dahlman Rose analyst Anthony Young said: "The mining technology needs to solve the problem of the bottom pressure and corrosion. I think that the technical difficulty may lead to this kind of mining can never be exploited."

Jon Hykawy, an analyst at Byron Capital Markets, said: “The cost of mining subsea deposits must be high, so the minerals mined must be very expensive.”

"Although the rare earth price has become more expensive, it will never rise to the level of extremely rare metals such as gold."