Japan launches rare earth seabed mission amid China export curbs

A Japanese mining ship set sail on Monday for a remote coral atoll to probe mud rich in rare earths, part of Tokyo’s push to reduce its dependence on China for critical minerals as Beijing tightens supply, Reuters reported on Monday.

The month-long mission of the test vessel Chikyu near Minamitori Island, about 1,900 km (1,200 miles) southeast of Tokyo, will be the world’s first attempt to continuously lift rare-earth-rich seabed sludge from a depth of 6 km (4 miles) onto a ship, the report said.

Japan, like its Western allies, has been working to cut reliance on China for minerals vital to making cars, smartphones and military hardware, an effort that has gained urgency amid a deepening diplomatic row with Beijing.

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“After seven years of steady preparation, we can finally begin the confirmation tests. It’s deeply moving,” Shoichi Ishii, the head of the government-backed project told Reuters.

“If this project succeeds, it will be of great significance in diversifying Japan’s rare earth resource procurement,” he said, adding that recovering the key minerals from 6 km below sea level would be a major technological achievement.

The vessel, with 130 crew and researchers, is scheduled to return to the port on February 14.

Breaking away from China won’t be easy

Last week, China banned exports of items destined for Japan’s military that have civilian and military uses, including some critical minerals. The Wall Street Journal reported Beijing has also begun restricting rare-earth exports to Japan more broadly.

Japan has condemned China’s dual-use ban but declined to comment on the report of a broader ban, which China has not confirmed or denied. Chinese state media, though, have said Beijing was weighing the measure.

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Finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial powers will discuss rare-earth supplies at a meeting in Washington on Monday.

The Minamitori Island project, however, is the first to attempt to source rare earths domestically.
“The fundamental solution is to be able to produce rare earths inside Japan,” Takahide Kiuchi, executive economist at Nomura Research Institute, told Reuters.

“If this new round of export controls ends up covering a lot of rare earths, Japanese companies will again make efforts to move away from China, but I don’t think it will be easy,” he said.

Japan remains heavily reliant on China for some rare earths, including those used in magnets for electric and hybrid vehicle motors, analysts say.

Long-term Project

Since a supply scare in 2010, Japan’s government and private firms have built up stockpiles of rare earths, though they do not disclose the volumes.

But Kazumi Nishikawa, principal director of economic security at the trade ministry, said the government had to continually remind companies to diversify their supply chains.

“Sometimes, you know, some event happened, then the business reacts, but the event finishes, the business forgets. We have to maintain continuous efforts,” Nishikawa said on the China Talk podcast this week.

The Minamitori Island project, into which the government has sunk 40 billion yen ($250 million) since 2018, is also a long-term play.

Estimated reserves have not been disclosed and no production target has been set, but if the project succeeds, a full-scale mining trial is planned for February 2027.

Mining the mud was previously viewed as uneconomical due to high costs. But if supply disruption from China continues and buyers become willing to pay higher prices, the project could become viable in coming years, Kotaro Shimizu, principal analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting, told reuters

China is keeping a close watch. When the ship was conducting surveys around the island in June last year, a fleet of Chinese naval ships sailed nearby, Ishii said.

“We feel a strong sense of crisis that such intimidating actions were taken,” he said. China said its actions were in line with international law and called on Japan to “refrain from hyping up threats”.

With inputs from agencies