Offshore rare earths deposit found; Japanese team finds huge deposit in Pacific Ocean

摘要

THE DISCOVERY OF a vast deposit of rare earth minerals in international waters could break China's dominance in rare earths and give marine mining a boost. The deposits stretch east and west of Hawaii as well as east of Tahiti in French Polynesia and could contain as much as 72.5 to 91 Gt (80 to 100 billion st) of rare earth elements from 78 locations. The discovery was made by an exploration team led by Yasuhiro Kato, an associate professor of earth science at the University of Tokyo that included researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Reuters reported.