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Edition: U.S. Article Comments (8) Interactive Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Thai women cheer first female prime minister 03 Jul 2011 Casey Anthony murder case may go to jury Monday 03 Jul 2011 Huge rare earth deposits found in Pacific: Japan experts 2:58am EDT Son of Libya's Gaddafi tells West: "You cannot win" 03 Jul 2011 Casey Anthony murder trial nears conclusion 03 Jul 2011 Discussed 194 Minnesota government shutdown begins after talks fail 101 White House snubs McConnell invitation to Obama 86 U.S. cost of war at least $3.7 trillion and counting Watched Hefner's revenge; Ryan Reynolds stops traffic Fri, Jun 17 2011 A Tokyo-Paris flight in under three hours on the horizon Fri, Jun 24 2011 DSK chased by media Sun, Jul 3 2011 Huge rare earth deposits found in Pacific: Japan experts Tweet Share this Email Print Factbox Global reserves of rare earths 2:58am EDT Analysis & Opinion Don’t look up, it’s NUTTY in the sky! How to feed a hungry world? Related Topics Technology » Japan » Green Business » Related Interactive Disaster in Japan Marks made by an excavator is pictured at the old site of a rare earth metals mine on the outskirts of Longnan county, in Jiangxi Province October 27, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee TOKYO | Mon Jul 4, 2011 2:58am EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Vast deposits of rare earth minerals, crucial in making high-tech electronics products, have been found on the floor of the Pacific Ocean and can be readily extracted, Japanese scientists said on Monday. "The deposits have a heavy concentration of rare earths. Just one square kilometer (0.4 square mile) of deposits will be able to provide one-fifth of the current global annual consumption," said Yasuhiro Kato, an associate professor of earth science at the University of Tokyo. The discovery was made by a team led by Kato and including researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. They found the minerals in sea mud extracted from depths of 3,500 to 6,000 meters (11,500-20,000 ft) below the ocean surface at 78 locations. One-third of the sites yielded rich contents of rare earths and the metal yttrium, Kato said in a telephone interview. The deposits are in international waters in an area stretching east and west of Hawaii, as well as east of Tahiti in French Polynesia, he said. He estimated rare earths contained in the deposits amounted to 80 to 100 billion metric tons, compared to global reserves currently confirmed by the U.S. Geological Survey of just 110 million tonnes that have been found mainly in China, Russia and other former Soviet countries, and the United States. Details of the discovery were published on Monday in the online version of British journal Nature Geoscience. The level of uranium and thorium -- radioactive ingredients that are usually contained in such deposits that can pose environmental hazards -- was found to be one-fifth of those in deposits on land, Kato said. A chronic shortage of rare earths, vital for making a range of high-technology electronics, magnets and batteries, has encouraged mining projects for them in recent years. China, which accounts for 97 percent of global rare earth supplies, has been tightening trade in the strategic metals, sparking an explosion in prices. Japan, which accounts for a third of global demand, has been stung badly, and has been looking to diversify its supply sources, particularly of heavy rare earths such as dysprosium used in magnets. Kato said the sea mud was especially rich in heavier rare earths such as gadolinium, lutetium, terbium and dysprosium. "These are used to manufacture flat-screen TVs, LED (light-emitting diode) valves, and hybrid cars," he said. Extracting the deposits requires pumping up material from the ocean floor. "Sea mud can be brought up to ships and we can extract rare earths right there using simple acid leaching," he said. "Using diluted acid, the process is fast, and within a few hours we can extract 80-90 percent of rare earths from the mud." The team found that sites close to Hawaii and Tahiti were especially rich in rare earths, he said. He gave no estimate of when extraction of the materials from the seabed might start. (Reporting by El Tan in Hong Kong and Yuko Inoue in Tokyo; Editing by Michael Watson) Technology Japan Green Business Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (8) CSRain wrote: Sweet!! I didn’t know we were going to rape the land UNDER the ocean! Jul 03, 2011 8:35pm EDT -- Report as abuse EN3 wrote: I guess the tree huggers will be crying, “Oh No the Kelp!” Thankfully Japan is not a environmentaly psychopathic as the united states is, truthfully most people in the united states are not that crazy either but that doesn’t matter anymore in the united states, if 250 million people will benefit from something but only 5 people crying complain we have to listen to the 5 people. The news media and politicians are afraid of insulting anyone. Japan dig it up quick before the crying starts. Just think they’ll be a new tv show out of this “KELP WARS” Jul 03, 2011 9:16pm EDT -- Report as abuse bao wrote: It’s good these were found underneath the ocean. Now the US doesn’t have to find some bogus reason to invade some country and rape-torture-kill the locals. Jul 03, 2011 9:18pm EDT -- Report as abuse See All Comments » Add Your Comment Social Stream (What's this?) © Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters Editorial Editions: Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom United States Reuters Contact Us Advertise With Us Help Journalism Handbook Archive Site Index Video Index Reader Feedback Mobile Newsletters RSS Podcasts Widgets Your View Analyst Research Thomson Reuters Copyright Disclaimer Privacy Professional Products Professional Products Support Financial Products About Thomson Reuters Careers Online Products Acquisitions Monthly Buyouts Venture Capital Journal International Financing Review Project Finance International PEhub.com PE Week FindLaw Super Lawyers Attorney Rating Service Reuters on Facebook Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

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