A new publication in the journal Nature Geoscience, by a Japanese group, is reporting that a previously unknown source of "rare earth" elements, crucial in the development of high tech electronics (i.e., flat screen TVs, smartphones, etc.) and electric/hybrid vehicles components (e.g., rechargeable batteries), has been discovered in the deep sea mud of the Pacific Ocean (near Hawai'i and Tahiti, amongst other places).
Entitled just that ("Deep-sea mud in the Pacific Ocean as a potential resource for rare-earth elements"), the article explains how the ocean floor holds potentially 1000x the reserves of "rare-earth" elements that otherwise are being supplied almost exclusively (97%) by China. China has recently shown a willingness to exploit its monopoly of these crucial elements for political and financial gain, leading countries that depend on them, of which Japan constitutes 1/3, to search for other sources.
World demand for rare-earth elements and the metal yttrium—which are crucial for novel electronic equipment and green-energy technologies—is increasing rapidly1, 2, 3. Several types of seafloor sediment harbour high concentrations of these elements4, 5, 6, 7. However, seafloor sediments have not been regarded as a rare-earth element and yttrium resource, because data on the spatial distribution of these deposits are insufficient. Here, we report measurements of the elemental composition of over 2,000 seafloor sediments, sampled at depth intervals of around one metre, at 78 sites that cover a large part of the Pacific Ocean. We show that deep-sea mud contains high concentrations of rare-earth elements and yttrium at numerous sites throughout the eastern South and central North Pacific. We estimate that an area of just one square kilometre, surrounding one of the sampling sites, could provide one-fifth of the current annual world consumption of these elements. Uptake of rare-earth elements and yttrium by mineral phases such as hydrothermal iron-oxyhydroxides and phillipsite seems to be responsible for their high concentration. We show that rare-earth elements and yttrium are readily recovered from the mud by simple acid leaching, and suggest that deep-sea mud constitutes a highly promising huge resource for these elements.
It would appear that these elements, which in fact are not exceptionally "rare" in the earth's crust but are just difficult to gain access to, are believed to have originated in deep-sea vents and are found at depths of 3.5 to 6 km (2-4 miles). Of course, mining at that depth is problematic, as an industrial expert suggests:
Gareth Hatch, an industry analyst and founder of the Technology Metals Research consultancy in Carpentersville, Illinois, is sceptical. "People talk about mining on the asteroids or the Moon. This isn't that hard, but it's similar," says Hatch. Current on-land mines, and sites picked out for future mines, have rare-earth concentrations of about 3–10%, he points out. The much lower concentrations at the Chinese clay mine mentioned by Kato and his colleagues are only economically viable because the material is much easier to access than it would be in hard rock. That's not true for mud located below 4 or 5 kilometres of water, which would require expensive ship time and equipment to pull up. "There are better options," he says.
Craig Smith, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, notes that companies are exploring the idea of mining manganese nodules from the sea floor to exploit their commercially-valuable contents, including copper and nickel as well as rare earths. Commercial mining of nodules is "probably a decade away", says Smith. Ocean mud could prove another possible source of the increasingly valuable elements.
At the very least, this potential mother lode may ease the market pressure on these elements and convince the Chinese that they don't have quite the monopoly to exploit that they had otherwise believed.
More here from a free link (apologies for quoting articles that I can't provide links to, they're behind a library subscription firewall):
http://www.rawstory.com/...