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Japan Discovers Large Precious Metal Deposit in Seabed

34 points by philco 14y ago

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
ChuckMcM 14y ago
Fascinating, not sure if you can easily mine the stuff underwater though.
- Tycho 14y ago
  It seems reasonable to assume that we'll develop the technology to do so in the not so distant future...
  - ChuckMcM 14y ago
    Really? It was looking to me like the Mountain Pass mine would re-open and once a 'stable' supply was available again it would reduce investment in alternate supplies. I've seen research into replacing rare-earths with other more common materials but haven't seen any serious work into underwater mining (except the fringe stuff where people are pulling gold out of seawater but that doesn't seem 'well funded' to me). Do you know of any underwater mining projects other than the Scripps Institute and Woods Hole ones?
nekojima 14y ago
From original post: "mud samples taken from the seabed around 5,600 metres (18,300 feet) down" The techniques to extract these deposits would likely be similar to deep sea oil extraction. Their proposed timeline of production in five years is optimistic, especially given these are just the initial samples. Original post: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-finds-major-rare-earth-deposits-researcher-091926573--finance.html http://news.yahoo.com/japan-finds-major-rare-earth-deposits-...
drucken 14y ago
This article keeps rearing its head every 6 months/year, even on HN (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1886895 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1886895). It will be a very long time before mining the seabed for rare earth minerals will be anywhere near as economically viable (or even environmentally-friendly) as traditional mining. It is just that everyone has relied on China for so long for this dirty (literal sense) industry that they are now effectively being held hostage. It is not due to the fact that "rare earth minerals" are actually rare and for a large part of the 20th century, the US, for example, was one of the primary producers and exporters.
- jsm386 14y ago
  It does seem like there has been progress made/realistic goals in mind. I submitted this Times piece earlier today: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/science/vast-deposits-of-gold-and-other-ores-lure-seabed-miners.html?hp http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/science/vast-deposits-of-g... There are contracts for delivery in place: Meanwhile, Tong Ling, China’s largest importer of copper concentrates and one of the world’s largest copper smelters, recently signed a deal with Nautilus for more than a million tons of Pacific sulfide ores per year — an amount equal to about 5 percent of the world’s copper production.

34 points by philco 14y ago

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

ChuckMcM 14y ago

Fascinating, not sure if you can easily mine the stuff underwater though.

Tycho 14y ago
It seems reasonable to assume that we'll develop the technology to do so in the not so distant future...
- ChuckMcM 14y ago
  Really? It was looking to me like the Mountain Pass mine would re-open and once a 'stable' supply was available again it would reduce investment in alternate supplies. I've seen research into replacing rare-earths with other more common materials but haven't seen any serious work into underwater mining (except the fringe stuff where people are pulling gold out of seawater but that doesn't seem 'well funded' to me). Do you know of any underwater mining projects other than the Scripps Institute and Woods Hole ones?

nekojima 14y ago

From original post: "mud samples taken from the seabed around 5,600 metres (18,300 feet) down" The techniques to extract these deposits would likely be similar to deep sea oil extraction. Their proposed timeline of production in five years is optimistic, especially given these are just the initial samples. Original post: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-finds-major-rare-earth-deposits-researcher-091926573--finance.html http://news.yahoo.com/japan-finds-major-rare-earth-deposits-...

drucken 14y ago

This article keeps rearing its head every 6 months/year, even on HN (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1886895 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1886895). It will be a very long time before mining the seabed for rare earth minerals will be anywhere near as economically viable (or even environmentally-friendly) as traditional mining. It is just that everyone has relied on China for so long for this dirty (literal sense) industry that they are now effectively being held hostage. It is not due to the fact that "rare earth minerals" are actually rare and for a large part of the 20th century, the US, for example, was one of the primary producers and exporters.

jsm386 14y ago
It does seem like there has been progress made/realistic goals in mind. I submitted this Times piece earlier today: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/science/vast-deposits-of-gold-and-other-ores-lure-seabed-miners.html?hp http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/science/vast-deposits-of-g... There are contracts for delivery in place: Meanwhile, Tong Ling, China’s largest importer of copper concentrates and one of the world’s largest copper smelters, recently signed a deal with Nautilus for more than a million tons of Pacific sulfide ores per year — an amount equal to about 5 percent of the world’s copper production.