Featured Image Credit: The Nippon Foundation
Topics: Science, Environment, Technology, Business
Callum Jones
Topics: Science, Environment, Technology, Business
Japan may well have hit the jackpot after discovering 230,000,000 tons of rare mineral that could make them billions in the future.
A survey conducted earlier this year by The Nippon Foundation in collaboration with the University of Tokyo found that the seabed around Minami-Tori-shima island has around 610,000 metric tons of cobalt and 740,000 metric tons of nickel.
Why is that so important, you ask?
Well, these sought-after materials are two of the crucial components needed to create electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
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This is the equivalent to 11 years of domestic consumption, meaning Japan could have a rather large bank balance in the years to come.
230 million tons of the rare minerals were discovered between April and June, according to Nikkei Asia.
A team of experts surveyed 100 seabed sites using remotely operated underwater vehicles, which allowed them to explore the deep sea.
Those working on the project guided these impressive machines to depths of 5,200 to 5,700 meters before confirming that a field of dense manganese nodules lay on the seabed around 1,200 miles from Tokyo.
The publication added the magnesium nodules, which contained the cobalt and nickel, are thought to have formed over millions of years as metals transported in the ocean attach themselves to fish bones and stuck to the seabed.
As well as that, the deposits are thought to contain copper - another valuable element.
Interestingly, these manganese nodules were initially discovered in a 2016 survey and experts claimed that multiple had formed around teeth belonging to the Megalodon.
The prehistoric shark, thought to have lived around 23 to 3.6 million years ago, is commonly known as the largest to have ever lived.
Following the most recent survey, Yasuhiro Kato, a professor specializing in resource geology at the University of Tokyo, said that excavators now plan to lift ‘three million tons annually’ from the deposits.
He claimed that this procedure would allow development to continue while ‘minimizing the impact on the marine environment’.
The team will therefore utilise overseas mining vessels to lift several thousand tons of nodules daily from 2025. Moreover, they want their efforts to help establish a framework for commercialization in collaboration with the private sector.
The discovery of the mineral cornucopia is thought to be a ‘jackpot’ where Japan’s EV industry is concerned.
By utilising the cobalt and nickel from the ocean, the country will be able to decrease its dependency on other countries and satiate the internal demand for EV batteries, according to Interesting Engineering.
“Ultimately, we expect that our research outcomes will help boost Japan’s growth by establishing a domestic supply chain stretching from ‘resource-mining’ to ‘manufacturing’, and make Japan a science-technology, and ocean-oriented nation in a true sense of word,” a press release from the University of Tokyo stated.