by neonate on 12/26/22, 4:39 AM
by pcurve on 12/26/22, 3:35 AM
by idontwantthis on 12/26/22, 4:00 AM
This is probably crazy, but I wonder if it would be possible to leave these sites with better ecology than they have now.
What if, after mining, a smaller amount of the minerals are put back, closer to the surface so that a smaller amount are more easily consumed and life could flourish again with less available?
by h0l0cube on 12/26/22, 3:58 AM
> from the mud on the deep sea bottom in an area off Minami-Torishima Island, a coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean about 1,900 kilometers southeast of Tokyo.
If they were a way to make resource extraction from asteroids commercially feasible, I’d take that over ruining this or any other planet to make our gadgets.
by dirtyid on 12/26/22, 5:41 AM
Ctr+f for "refining", 0 results. Extracting is not the PRC rare earth dominance bottle neck, it's the decades of infra and tech built up for processing. This is JP spending 40M on research+trial hoping for some sort of resource "moonshot". The lack of strategic resource land deposite continues to cripple the islands security, but underwater recovery/extraction unlikely to be economically feasible vs land producers. And where is JP going to process without fucking up the enviroment? ~80% of PRC rare earth is refined in relatively sparsely populated parts inner mongolia or sichuan, which are more or less periphery. Which part of JP is going to be sacrificed to turn into Mordor? Maybe Hokkaido? Or are these extracted materials going to be shipped to PRC for refining (like many current short/medium term plans for new AU/US rare earth extraction efforts), thereby negating the point of reducing reliance on PRC.
by bamboozled on 12/26/22, 12:14 PM
I can't read the article as it's pay walled but I wonder if Japan has considered just being friendly with another country that has rare earth minerals already being mined? Such as Australia, America or Thailand?
Seems kind of stupid to start doing this when it already has apparently strong ties with other suppliers.
I don't want to be too negative but a lot of "unusual thinking" seems to be coming out of Japan lately.
One thing I struggle with when it comes to Japanese news is it very often comes across as "Pro-Japan" propaganda these days. The headlines always seem to start with "Japan to <something awesome/edgy/innovative>"
by walrus01 on 12/26/22, 3:36 AM
by Abimelex on 12/26/22, 3:33 PM
Environmental impact could be the worst, I hope they are not gonna proceed with these planes.
by bdhcuidbebe on 12/26/22, 4:36 PM
Here comes Godzillaaaaaaaarghhhh
by shmerl on 12/26/22, 4:12 AM
Reminds Leviathan.
by campak on 12/26/22, 3:41 PM
As long as they don't get Vibranium. I watched Wakanda Forever...
by bozhark on 12/26/22, 9:06 AM
Why does Japan hate the Ocean so much?
