From Australia to Central Asia's interior, and then to the deep waters of South Bird Island, Japan, a country that searches for minerals everywhere, has even reached Greenland, thousands of miles away.
According to a report by the Nikkei Asia website on June 14th, the Japanese government plans to begin studying the possibility of mining key minerals such as rare earths in Greenland as soon as this summer. The goal is to help Japanese companies invest in local rare earth projects.
Greenland Mining Fields 《Nihon Keizai Asia》
According to reports, it is crucial for Japan to diversify its sources of rare earth procurement today. China currently accounts for about 70% of the world's rare earth production. Last year, exports were restricted under tense Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations.
In November last year, a joint public-private investigation team from Japan visited a long-existing stone mine in Greenland and concluded that the mine could still operate under extreme cold conditions. Next, the Japanese government will send geologists from the Japan Organization for Metal and Energy Safety (JOGMEC) to the area.
These scientists will hold talks with officials from the autonomous government in Nukus, the capital city, and visit mining areas that are preparing to extract rare metals. In addition to studying the scale of the mineral deposits, they will also assess the costs of mining.
Japanese government officials estimate that the Greenland mining areas may contain rare earth elements like dysprosium, which are used in the manufacturing of electric motors, as well as mineral resources such as graphite, which are used in batteries. During the mining process, tantalum and niobium may also be obtained—these are important materials for the semiconductor industry.
According to data from the United States Geological Survey, Greenland has approximately 1.5 million tons of rare earth reserves, making it the eighth-largest reserve in the world. U.S. President Donald Trump has shown strong interest in acquiring land in Greenland. With rising temperatures and melting ice, mining local minerals is expected to become easier.
Currently, the mining of rare earths in Greenland has not actually begun, but American and European companies are advancing the necessary preparations. Japanese companies may also collaborate with foreign partners to participate in this project in the future.
How to transport the rare earths mined in Greenland back to Japan remains a challenge. The Japanese government plans to create a supply chain with partner countries, for example by building refineries within the European Union.
The Greenland Self-Government has a open attitude towards cooperation with the Japanese government and companies. Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in an interview with Nikkei in November last year that Japan, along with the European Union and the United States, is welcome to participate in resource development cooperation.
He also said that he hoped to reduce countries' reliance on China and should cooperate with Greenland.
In fact, in order to reduce its dependence on Chinese rare earths, Japan has tried almost every possible method over the years. This includes traveling to Africa and Central Asia to search for minerals, as well as making bold claims to dig up rare earths from the deep ocean floor. However, these efforts have had little success. Particularly, Japan's long-promoted "deep-sea rare earth clay" project has been ridiculed by the public as an unrealistic example. The extraction costs are extremely high, and the project lacks any commercial competitiveness at all.
According to a previous analysis by Nikkei News, the technology for extracting rare earths from sea mud is still in the basic research stage. To achieve mass production, improvements are needed. Additionally, the extraction of sea mud requires high costs. Data from the Japan First Life Economic Research Institute indicates that the cost of extracting rare earth mud near Nanu Island can be several times to dozens of times higher than the market price of rare earths produced in China.
Japanese think tank, Lifeline Research Institute, researcher Yoshikiyo Shimamine said that due to China's “abysmally low” smelting costs, Japan is currently unable to compete with China. China has established integrated facilities from mining to smelting, and currently accounts for about 70% of the world’s supply of rare earth ores, as well as more than 90% of the global refining market share.
On February 3, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responded to Japanese journalists’ questions regarding seabed rare earth mining: “We have noticed that there have been such reports in Japan in recent years.”
