Discovery of rare-earth minerals off Japan coast secures 780 years of industrial demand: study

Japan’s industrial evolution over the next several hundred years has received a major boost with confirmation that millions of tonnes of rare-earth minerals exist just off the country’s coast.

News of the valuable discovery – which potentially frees Japanese firms from costly foreign mineral imports – came on April 10 when scientists from the University of Tokyo and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) published findings in the UK journal Scientific Reports.