Japan is accelerating a decade-old plan to extract rare earths from the deep seabed, an ambitious initiative given extra impetus by the country¡¯s drive to cut reliance on Chinese supply.
A state-owned vessel is scheduled to return to port this month after fitting equipment below the surface of Japanese waters, near a coral atoll 2,000 kilometers from Tokyo. The aim is to pull metal-bearing mud from the seabed for tests as early as February 2027, according to the government body running the project.
¡°It¡¯s about economic security,¡± said Shoichi Ishii, program director for Japan¡¯s National Platform for Innovative Ocean Developments. ¡°The country needs to secure a supply chain of rare earths. However expensive they may be, the industry needs them.¡±
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