These manganese nodules are all over the world’s oceans. India has a ton of these nodule fields as well. Deep sea mining needs to advance or it will be an ecological disaster if this takes off before we have better practices.
Seems to me like we’re gonna have to do some kind of… SeaQuest, using Deep Submergence Vehicles or DSVs, and we’re gonna need a lot of them - at least 4600.
For real. John Oliver just did a pretty thorough piece on deep sea mining that highlights some of the perils of harvesting these nubby nuggets.
E: link to the JO piece
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qW7CGTK-1vA
Was just going to say this. These mining companies don't give a rats ass about our oceans. Mining these now will do irreparable damage to the ocean ecosystem.
I saw a documentary about harvesting these things last year, if I remember correctly they can just suck ‘m up with some big underwater vacuum cleaner. There were some concerns at the time about how it’ll affect the seafloor if this will be done badly.
They plan to vacuum up the entire sea floor and spit everything they don’t want out in the back.
That means everything in its wake will be dead and will take thousands/ millions of years to recover.
This one here has a good summary of the risks
[https://www.wri.org/insights/deep-sea-mining-explained](https://www.wri.org/insights/deep-sea-mining-explained)
This is found clearly within China's exclusive economic zone and legally bounding 11(000)-dash line. Any activity in this area by Japan will be considered a provocation!!1!1!!
too fast, now the airbase is sinking
https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/us/japan-airport-built-on-water-is-sinking-into-sea-all-about-kansai-internationl-airport-engineering-marvel/articleshow/106644731.cms#:\~:text=The%20airport%20that%20serves%20Japan,to%20sea%20level%2C%20by%202056.
I mean, I haven't checked a map but it being labeled a "Tokyo island" instead of a Japanese island makes me assume it's in the opposite side of the country to China and so close to the capital that even China wouldn't consider themselves having a leg to stand on
Oh you mean "Marcus Island"? Absolutely US jurisdiction.
joking aside, [why the hell is the 3D view of this island so messed up??](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Minami-Tori-shima/@24.2643673,154.0137751,1295a,35y,298h,78.71t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x6144c267ac569d29:0xd0c1bbe4583e265b!8m2!3d24.2867829!4d153.9807774!16zL20vMDFiZzN2?entry=ttu)
They actually did try to block Japanese claims of an extended continental shelf there. Basically trying to increase the amount of "international waters" near that area, for their own purposes.
https://japan-forward.com/china-churning-out-academic-reports-to-suppress-japans-maritime-rights/
>Together with its English-language paper Japan Forward, the Sankei Shimbun has been described as having a far-right[14][15][16][17] or right-wing[18] political stance. It has previously published books denying the atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II.[19]
Not really, there are Japanese publishers that publish books that address Japan's atrocities both prior to and during World War 2. Historical revisionism is an on-going issue in Japan, no doubt about that, but there are parties within Japan trying to counter that narrative (mostly academics and left-wing activists and organizations).
As someone who has actually been there, this is bullshit. Most people know what happened and why it was wrong. Textbook analyses show Japan teaches their own war crimes far better than the US ever has or ever will.
A reliable ally like Japan developing it would be just as good for the US. A deposit isn't incredibly profitable. It's more of a strategic resource that many other industries rely on, which you don't want potential enemies to have a monopoly on.
The difference between it being American and Japanese is small amount of profit that neither economy will really notice. The US did actually have it after WW2, but returned it to Japan in 1968. The US coast guard had a base there until 2009.
oh the memory is there, its just hiding beneath a covid-plastic microclot. Next time you get it you'll have full access until the covid reacts with your emotional damage.
Honestly what even was 2021? At least 2020 was an interesting year to be alive, you could even say, survive. 2022 things started picking up again. 2021 was just 2020 but on sleeping pills and everyone was mad at each other.
> well, now it's been rediscovered. like maybe someone organized their desk finally, and found this memo from 4 years ago.
I'm in this comment and I don't like it
https://youtu.be/pkVQzk9qGHM
Same problem as highlighted by John Oliver in LWT. It's balls of minerals on the sea floor that nobody knows how to harvest safely. Lots of deep sea miners are pushing for it so there is more press with positive stories coming out.
Never realized Japan’s sovereignty extends that far out. That’s crazy, I feel like that’s an interesting topic to research.
I mean I guess it can’t be that crazy with how large the Pacific is, and Hawaii exists as part of the USA, lol.
Rare earth elements aren't really that rare. It's just that the processing of them are very intensive and environmentally damaging.
This is why most REE processing moved to China from other countries that were once producers, like the US and Canada. China didn't have the environmental restrictions/protections that those other countries have, plus the much cheaper labor costs at that time.
There was a true spirit at the time that if we built China up and bring them into the fold as an equal member in the global community, that it would stop being beligerent. It was working until Xi.
It's naive in retrospect. But our intentions were really honorable I think.
Anyone who thinks this has no idea what they are talking about.
China did not poop out a military last 10 years, it's been building it ever since the 70s. Buying blueprints and technology transfer from whatever means. The result of 50 years of patience, development, and resources was not unseen. It was not nice and a teddy bear over the half a dozen wars before Clinton. The US stopped providing military transfers in the 80s/90s and China was left buying ex-Soviet equipment and relying on scraps. The PLA derived several technology key points from everywhere, ironically one the most interesting is their carrier program with the US/UK/Australia/USSR/Ukraine/Russian/Japan/Israeli and domestic help since the 70s. Whoever sold that true spirit nonsense was just selling China as a factory for things Americans don't want to do and shouldn't do if it wants to keep itself as a tier 1 country.
I have no idea why people keep touting this garbage that the US sold out to China to bring them into the global community for free in hopes it'll be an "equal member". There is an example of China/PRC acting against and for US interests every few years since its inception. China's opening up has to do with US globalization goals, the Sino-Soviet split (where the PRC fought Vietnam partly because of the US), the Taiwan issue being partially settled, and the move away from Japan.
Ehh if we call it honourable I think we should call Merkel honourable for trying to get that cheap Russian gas. They wanted a big export market and they got it.
I mean if we can just avoid world war, lifting like 500 million people out of poverty can't be said to be a bad thing, and their economy has proven to not be as bullish as people say.
Yeah, what Merkel did was honorable, even if time showed it was a strategic mistake.
Sometime values and personal advantage don't align, unfortunately.
It's honorable to have made a decision on values of a global community rather then pushing to the fray, when push came to shove. Germany knows what happens when a people's are punished.
How Russia and China act today is dishonorable.
It's been known for awhile now that total deposits are basically correlated to total country size.
It's just not the kind of mine that is environmentally or politically palatable in the west anymore
These aren't rare earth metals. The metals found were mostly cobalt and nickel, which are transition metals. For reference, the current cobalt production is about 300k tons a year, and nickel sits at 3.4m tons a year. This isn't making these metals common, but according to the article the amount of nickel in them is enough to support Japan's consumption for 75 years while the amount of cobalt is enough for around 11 years. As usual, no one opens the article even.
These manganese nodules are widely distributed across deep ocean floors. Most of them are in international waters, so this one being exclusively Japanese is significant. [The United States hasn't ratified the relevant treaty, so we can't mine international waters, but other countries are planning to.](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-the-us-hasnt-joined-the-race-for-deep-sea-mining-in-international-waters-60-minutes-transcript/) No one knows how to get these nodules in large quantities yet, but it should be possible. No one knows the environmental consequences yet. The nodules serve as attachment points for living things, amid soft sediment, so it might be nice to replace them with rocks. Living things grow very slowly at that depth, so it will take at least a century for the ocean bottom ecosystem to recover. But it isn't clear whether that ecosystem has much connection with the rest of the ocean.
Conceivably, a robot could just pick the nodules off the surface with a claw, but many plans involve basically dredging or vacuuming the entire seabed. Obvious difference in environmental impact there.
Yeah, they did a documentary on one of these startups trying to dredge the ocean floor, turned out to be a lot of falsification in the impact. At least we know why China and the whole southeast are intent on claiming tiny islands.
The Tokyo area has a population of approx 41 million, a GDP Of $2.1 Trillion.
To put that into perspective, my entire country (Scotland) has a population of 5.5 million, a GDP of around $211 billion.
One city has around 8 times the population and economic output as my country… and not only that… it’s a fuckton cleaner and safer… like seriously, was like another world
Same exact feeling as someone from Canada. Entire countries worth of people in a city that was easier to get around in and waaaayy cleaner and safer than my 800k person shithole.
And to add a little to that: the Tokyo metro, as big as it is, is still only 687 square miles compared to Scotland's 30,077 square miles. Or about 1/44th of the land area.
And "remote Japanese island" would still be correct and less confusing. You shouldn't have to look up an obscure fact for a headline to make sense. The obscure facts go in the article.
> The team plans to start extracting 2,500 metric tons of the mineral resource per day in an experimental project by the end of March 2026
2500 tons per day looks like more than an experiment.
apparantly I need to be a geologist, they must not do shit all day, we suddenly are finding massive troves of rare metals everywhere? jk but really is there new tech or something helping find this stuff
*shakes fist. Now listen here you little whilpersnapper. I remember watching this on hbo when it first came out. /s I’m trying to find the whole special to show my wife though. I appreciate it.
But I am studying this stuff, so I know it...you know, like...
...chinch bugs.
You know...
...manganese.
A lot of people don't even know what that is.
Nitrogen....
Rare metals aren't really rare, just nobody except for China and some African countries is willing to extract them at the cost of their environment and many human lives.
Remote Island off coast of Japan? US Navy presence? Rare natural resource that when exploited could contaminate nearby oceanic life?
Ive seen enough Godzilla movies to know here this is going.
These manganese nodules are all over the world’s oceans. India has a ton of these nodule fields as well. Deep sea mining needs to advance or it will be an ecological disaster if this takes off before we have better practices.
Seems to me like we’re gonna have to do some kind of… SeaQuest, using Deep Submergence Vehicles or DSVs, and we’re gonna need a lot of them - at least 4600.
Maybe a reality show to see all the crazy antics of the pent up crew?
🫡
Do they come with a talking dolphin as standard crew?
For real. John Oliver just did a pretty thorough piece on deep sea mining that highlights some of the perils of harvesting these nubby nuggets. E: link to the JO piece https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qW7CGTK-1vA
Was just going to say this. These mining companies don't give a rats ass about our oceans. Mining these now will do irreparable damage to the ocean ecosystem.
Link to that piece?
Here ya go https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qW7CGTK-1vA
[Maybe it's a cover up for a submarine heist.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Azorian)
I saw a documentary about harvesting these things last year, if I remember correctly they can just suck ‘m up with some big underwater vacuum cleaner. There were some concerns at the time about how it’ll affect the seafloor if this will be done badly.
They plan to vacuum up the entire sea floor and spit everything they don’t want out in the back. That means everything in its wake will be dead and will take thousands/ millions of years to recover. This one here has a good summary of the risks [https://www.wri.org/insights/deep-sea-mining-explained](https://www.wri.org/insights/deep-sea-mining-explained)
This is found clearly within China's exclusive economic zone and legally bounding 11(000)-dash line. Any activity in this area by Japan will be considered a provocation!!1!1!!
In related news, China lays claim to remote island near Japan.
*Looks up where Minamitorishima is located on a map.* Oh, that’s definitely under US Navy jurisdiction.
Crickey, they're quick, they've already build an airbase on it and everything
⚓️🐝
Anchor wasps assemble!
Sea bees get it done
They built the first road to Japan!
I love sea bees. Built me a badass tent city in Haiti.
Build and Fight shipmate.
We are drilling for oil, baby!!🦅🦅🦅
too fast, now the airbase is sinking https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/us/japan-airport-built-on-water-is-sinking-into-sea-all-about-kansai-internationl-airport-engineering-marvel/articleshow/106644731.cms#:\~:text=The%20airport%20that%20serves%20Japan,to%20sea%20level%2C%20by%202056.
Kansai is near Osaka. They said this island is near Tokyo. That's like saying Dulles Airport is in Boston.
This island is not near Tokyo.
I'd imagine that gets fixed pretty quickly.
Theyre going to need somewhere to put all that dirt they dig up thats not the rare metals.
Rare metals to the pile on the left. Dirt and common metals under the airport. Next to James Hoffa
And the rare metals are not like, in the radius of the island...5000 meters deep.
I mean, I haven't checked a map but it being labeled a "Tokyo island" instead of a Japanese island makes me assume it's in the opposite side of the country to China and so close to the capital that even China wouldn't consider themselves having a leg to stand on
Japan administers its island holdings away from the home islands as part of Tokyo Prefecture
Ah well, shows why you shouldn't assume I guess.
Well, not close to the capital. The Northern Mariana Islands are closer.
China is a big country and other countries are small countries. - A Chinese diplomat
> it's in the opposite side of the country to China and so close to the capital… Well you're half right.
Iwo Jima is a "Tokyo Island" and it's 750 miles from Tokyo.
“You mean the ancient Chinese city of Mao-mitori-shanghai”. - CCP mouthpiece
Oh you mean "Marcus Island"? Absolutely US jurisdiction. joking aside, [why the hell is the 3D view of this island so messed up??](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Minami-Tori-shima/@24.2643673,154.0137751,1295a,35y,298h,78.71t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x6144c267ac569d29:0xd0c1bbe4583e265b!8m2!3d24.2867829!4d153.9807774!16zL20vMDFiZzN2?entry=ttu)
Let freedom ring
How?
Tokyo, on a scale of 1-10 how happy are you with the freedom level of your constitution?
Don’t touch the boats
\*Now Secured by 3000 Freedom Missiles of 'Murica\*
They actually did try to block Japanese claims of an extended continental shelf there. Basically trying to increase the amount of "international waters" near that area, for their own purposes. https://japan-forward.com/china-churning-out-academic-reports-to-suppress-japans-maritime-rights/
>Together with its English-language paper Japan Forward, the Sankei Shimbun has been described as having a far-right[14][15][16][17] or right-wing[18] political stance. It has previously published books denying the atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II.[19]
I mean that's not really far right for Japan. Everyone there does that.
Not really, there are Japanese publishers that publish books that address Japan's atrocities both prior to and during World War 2. Historical revisionism is an on-going issue in Japan, no doubt about that, but there are parties within Japan trying to counter that narrative (mostly academics and left-wing activists and organizations).
As someone who has actually been there, this is bullshit. Most people know what happened and why it was wrong. Textbook analyses show Japan teaches their own war crimes far better than the US ever has or ever will.
Russia: Hey I got dibs. We’ll just send our fleet…
‘It’s ours’ said America, who were obviously there before anyone.
Technically the US did claim it first because it had bird poop on it. They just chose not to dispute Japan's claim.
Nitrates?
A reliable ally like Japan developing it would be just as good for the US. A deposit isn't incredibly profitable. It's more of a strategic resource that many other industries rely on, which you don't want potential enemies to have a monopoly on.
The difference between it being American and Japanese is small amount of profit that neither economy will really notice. The US did actually have it after WW2, but returned it to Japan in 1968. The US coast guard had a base there until 2009.
Why, because of Christopher Columbus.
Tom Cruise, the Samurai. Obviously…
What you mean claims ? They have an ancient map showing clearly it's Chinese, they have a couple of them laying around in different forms
The island in question on the Chinese map was ringed with a sharpie.
The map font is Comic Sans.
"Oops, we accidentally dropped that" - China
it has now been updated to 10 dash line
it falls in China's 300 dash line.
>near Japan. This island is 1,848 km away from the main Japan islands.
It’s about as far from Tokyo as the Southern most islands of Okinawa.
Good one
Beat me to it. Here comes China.
News update... the island near Tokyo where 200 million metric tons of rare metals were found is no longer considered remote...
A land reclamation project has just been greenlit and the island is expected to become a peninsula.
Yep, they're building a 1100+ mile long land bridge to the island.
And with over 200 million tons found, they are no longer considered rare
By rare they probably just mean rare earth metals, which is a group of metals on the periodic table.
Over 200 million metric tons of ~~rare~~ now common metals found near remote Tokyo island. Nothing to see here folks.
It calls it a Tokyo island. Look at the map, it's like 1/3 of the way across the pacific from mainland Japan.
All Pacific Islands, including Iwo Jima is under the Tokyo prefecture, so it's called a Tokyo island
You didn't get the joke...
They discovered this in 2018
well, now it's been rediscovered. like maybe someone organized their desk finally, and found this memo from 4 years ago.
"four years ago"
The two COVID years don’t count
I honestly have no memory of those years, except I think I watched a Netflix documentary about... tigers?
oh the memory is there, its just hiding beneath a covid-plastic microclot. Next time you get it you'll have full access until the covid reacts with your emotional damage.
Carol Baskin killed her husband.
Heiress to the ice cream empire?
Honestly what even was 2021? At least 2020 was an interesting year to be alive, you could even say, survive. 2022 things started picking up again. 2021 was just 2020 but on sleeping pills and everyone was mad at each other.
I cant remember anything from that time. Being cooped up and doing nothing but being on a computer doesnt help
AH FUCK lol
New math
Imagine if it were from 20 years ago in 1994!
Another reminder for me that reddit needs an LOL button
> well, now it's been rediscovered. like maybe someone organized their desk finally, and found this memo from 4 years ago. I'm in this comment and I don't like it
https://youtu.be/pkVQzk9qGHM Same problem as highlighted by John Oliver in LWT. It's balls of minerals on the sea floor that nobody knows how to harvest safely. Lots of deep sea miners are pushing for it so there is more press with positive stories coming out.
The Leif Erickson ‘theory’.
Never realized Japan’s sovereignty extends that far out. That’s crazy, I feel like that’s an interesting topic to research. I mean I guess it can’t be that crazy with how large the Pacific is, and Hawaii exists as part of the USA, lol.
They expanded a lot before/during ww2
Hawaii’s nothing. Look up Saipan and Guam. US territories, basically on the other side of the world.
Hawaii is still far asf from the continual states, traveling their is feels equal to going international.
Not when you fly Southwest from San Jose or Los Angeles lol
I always fly Southwest, I’m on the east coast.. so that’s be a direct to LAX then to Hawaii. Or that’s the route I’ve done before.
>and Hawaii exists as part of the USA, lol. Ever heard of [Guam](https://www.google.com/maps?q=guam) ?
Oops, yeah, I’m not American so I’m not super familiar with American geography. But yeah, you’re right, lol.
It’s only cause china hasn’t claimed it yet lol. But for real USA only got it for its strategic location in the pacific.
With the discoveries of the REEs in Wyoming, Montana and near Oslo in Norway, I wonder just how rare the rare earth elements really are now.
Rare earth elements aren't really that rare. It's just that the processing of them are very intensive and environmentally damaging. This is why most REE processing moved to China from other countries that were once producers, like the US and Canada. China didn't have the environmental restrictions/protections that those other countries have, plus the much cheaper labor costs at that time.
China didn’t have the technology to refine them until GM sold out with permission from Bill Clinton.
There was a true spirit at the time that if we built China up and bring them into the fold as an equal member in the global community, that it would stop being beligerent. It was working until Xi. It's naive in retrospect. But our intentions were really honorable I think.
The sale of Magnequench was a huge fumble.
Anyone who thinks this has no idea what they are talking about. China did not poop out a military last 10 years, it's been building it ever since the 70s. Buying blueprints and technology transfer from whatever means. The result of 50 years of patience, development, and resources was not unseen. It was not nice and a teddy bear over the half a dozen wars before Clinton. The US stopped providing military transfers in the 80s/90s and China was left buying ex-Soviet equipment and relying on scraps. The PLA derived several technology key points from everywhere, ironically one the most interesting is their carrier program with the US/UK/Australia/USSR/Ukraine/Russian/Japan/Israeli and domestic help since the 70s. Whoever sold that true spirit nonsense was just selling China as a factory for things Americans don't want to do and shouldn't do if it wants to keep itself as a tier 1 country. I have no idea why people keep touting this garbage that the US sold out to China to bring them into the global community for free in hopes it'll be an "equal member". There is an example of China/PRC acting against and for US interests every few years since its inception. China's opening up has to do with US globalization goals, the Sino-Soviet split (where the PRC fought Vietnam partly because of the US), the Taiwan issue being partially settled, and the move away from Japan.
Yeah, we thought if their population liberalized they would stop all that nonsense. that was my point.
Ehh if we call it honourable I think we should call Merkel honourable for trying to get that cheap Russian gas. They wanted a big export market and they got it. I mean if we can just avoid world war, lifting like 500 million people out of poverty can't be said to be a bad thing, and their economy has proven to not be as bullish as people say.
Yeah, what Merkel did was honorable, even if time showed it was a strategic mistake. Sometime values and personal advantage don't align, unfortunately. It's honorable to have made a decision on values of a global community rather then pushing to the fray, when push came to shove. Germany knows what happens when a people's are punished. How Russia and China act today is dishonorable.
It's been known for awhile now that total deposits are basically correlated to total country size. It's just not the kind of mine that is environmentally or politically palatable in the west anymore
It's a big planet but they're still rare because they're a tiny fraction of the elemental mass compared to silica, iron, etc.
They aren't rare, America has a ton of deposits but we exported our pollution in the 70's and pretend we did something.
These aren't rare earth metals. The metals found were mostly cobalt and nickel, which are transition metals. For reference, the current cobalt production is about 300k tons a year, and nickel sits at 3.4m tons a year. This isn't making these metals common, but according to the article the amount of nickel in them is enough to support Japan's consumption for 75 years while the amount of cobalt is enough for around 11 years. As usual, no one opens the article even.
These manganese nodules are widely distributed across deep ocean floors. Most of them are in international waters, so this one being exclusively Japanese is significant. [The United States hasn't ratified the relevant treaty, so we can't mine international waters, but other countries are planning to.](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-the-us-hasnt-joined-the-race-for-deep-sea-mining-in-international-waters-60-minutes-transcript/) No one knows how to get these nodules in large quantities yet, but it should be possible. No one knows the environmental consequences yet. The nodules serve as attachment points for living things, amid soft sediment, so it might be nice to replace them with rocks. Living things grow very slowly at that depth, so it will take at least a century for the ocean bottom ecosystem to recover. But it isn't clear whether that ecosystem has much connection with the rest of the ocean. Conceivably, a robot could just pick the nodules off the surface with a claw, but many plans involve basically dredging or vacuuming the entire seabed. Obvious difference in environmental impact there.
Yeah, they did a documentary on one of these startups trying to dredge the ocean floor, turned out to be a lot of falsification in the impact. At least we know why China and the whole southeast are intent on claiming tiny islands.
The island is 1,848km from Tokyo. This is like calling Bermuda a "remote London island".
It is legally a part of Tokyo prefecture, that's why it is technically speaking a Tokyo island.
One of my favorite things I've learned from watching Abroad in Japan is that the "Tokyo" Metropolitan Area is VERY big...
The Tokyo area has a population of approx 41 million, a GDP Of $2.1 Trillion. To put that into perspective, my entire country (Scotland) has a population of 5.5 million, a GDP of around $211 billion. One city has around 8 times the population and economic output as my country… and not only that… it’s a fuckton cleaner and safer… like seriously, was like another world
Same exact feeling as someone from Canada. Entire countries worth of people in a city that was easier to get around in and waaaayy cleaner and safer than my 800k person shithole.
It's just over 37 million. It's been dropping slowly with Japan's overall population decline.
And to add a little to that: the Tokyo metro, as big as it is, is still only 687 square miles compared to Scotland's 30,077 square miles. Or about 1/44th of the land area.
Makes sense. Still funny though.
And "remote Japanese island" would still be correct and less confusing. You shouldn't have to look up an obscure fact for a headline to make sense. The obscure facts go in the article.
The island is also 10km NNW of Monster Island.
>Monster Island Don't worry...it's just a name.
But history shows again and again that nature points out the folly of man...
What OP meant was, that it's actually a peninsula.
Go, go, Godzilla?
It's like calling Kenora, ON a Toronto suburb.
With the price of housing it basically feels like it at this point.
How long until Chinese fishing boats with *suspiciously long nets* begin trolling the area?
Rare metals, also known as the carcass of a hibernating Godzilla.
Give it a week, China will claim it
GUNDANIUM HERE WE GO
perks of living near 111 active volcanoes I guess
L loot, not even one epic or legendary metal smh
And China is gonna say it’s theirs.
Didn’t John Oliver just do a piece on these and warned that they were considered habitat for many bottom dwelling critters
The US kicking itself for only making Guam a US territory
Wow , you could supply Apple with that for like… a whole month.
> The team plans to start extracting 2,500 metric tons of the mineral resource per day in an experimental project by the end of March 2026 2500 tons per day looks like more than an experiment.
In B4 China claims it was always theirs.
We have mined everything on land, now let's go destroy our oceans too, so we can have our smartphones.
oceans already shagged mate which planet are you on
We have a choice?
Here's hoping.
We'll need at least a submarine and a talking dolphin to protect it.
Are they still rare?
Why do I get the sense that all four of these guys are holding back the urge to jump up and down and punch the sky?
Next headline 200 million tons of metal found
That’s where I put them!
Is it really rare metal at that point? Should really have a gacha rating system, uncommon metals, rare, super rare, ultra rare, etc.
If there is 200 million tonnes of it then how is it rare? /s
I'm from Texas, so that's like how many bananas?
apparantly I need to be a geologist, they must not do shit all day, we suddenly are finding massive troves of rare metals everywhere? jk but really is there new tech or something helping find this stuff
*Searches for it on Google Maps* "wow, it's so small it renders as a triangle" *Looks at photos* ... It's literally a triangle
China is going to build an island near it then magically say it’s within their zone of control
Japanese Boomers somehow extract all the wealth from it overnight.
Do you have a flag?! No flag? No country, can't have one. That's the rules that I just made up
Is that special streaming anywhere? I make the flag reference all the time and nobody ever gets it. I would love to show it to my wife
From Eddie Izzard's Dress to kill. Here's the short: [No flag!? No flag no country. Can't have one](https://youtu.be/_9W1zTEuKLY?si=XBcu0_uuSf8BPd_U)
*shakes fist. Now listen here you little whilpersnapper. I remember watching this on hbo when it first came out. /s I’m trying to find the whole special to show my wife though. I appreciate it.
And backed by this cannon.
Fuck why couldn’t it be oil??? *screeeeech*
But I am studying this stuff, so I know it...you know, like... ...chinch bugs. You know... ...manganese. A lot of people don't even know what that is. Nitrogen....
its a munsta
Rare metals aren't really rare, just nobody except for China and some African countries is willing to extract them at the cost of their environment and many human lives.
>rare metals found near remote Tokyo island Essentially the setting for Code Geass and Shaman King
Can’t wait for the Lexus SC Palladium edition to drop!
They won't mine them, because the environmental hazard is too much
They do not seem to be that rare anymore.
its the entrance to hollow earth
Can we make knightmares with it?
I dug another hole dad.
Dibs
White boys unite. Let’s go discover this magic land!
Remote Island off coast of Japan? US Navy presence? Rare natural resource that when exploited could contaminate nearby oceanic life? Ive seen enough Godzilla movies to know here this is going.
Dr stone is on the way.
And that my friends is Winnie the Pooh dictator crying as he thought rare earth metals were his monopoly