Lead
In the North Pacific Ocean, far away from human settlements, Japanese scientists have discovered a giant rare earth mine on the seabed, rich in rare earth deposits that can last more than 700 years for human beings around the world, but Japan has been slow to mine, why?
Nowadays, the development of the productive forces of human society has undergone a transformation from inefficient access to resources to a high dependence on technology, but despite this, human beings still cannot leave resources, and resources are still a hurdle that we cannot overcome.
Rare earth is one of the very important resources, whether it is military or industrial production, rare earth has an important position, today, the global reserves of rare earth resources are not unlimited, so if rare earth resources are exhausted, how can we survive?
And despite the discovery of giant rare earth minerals, Japan did not immediately mine them, what is the reason?
1. The importance of rare earths.
Rare earth is composed of 17 kinds of metal elements, that is, rare metals, but very not rare, rare earth "rare" only because its composition accounts for the earth's crust content is not very much, but it is widely used in military, industrial production and many other fields, but it is very important for the development of modern society.
For example, militarily, rare earths are the key materials for advanced military weapons such as missiles and aircraft, and only by using a large number of rare earths can the performance of these weapons be fully brought into play, and the military deterrence of the country will be greatly enhanced.
In industrial production, rare earths as an irreplaceable catalyst, also play a very important role, for example, automobiles, electronic products, LED lights, etc., are produced after the use of rare earths as catalysts, not only that, rare earths have many special properties, such as ferrite magnets, magnetic storage, etc., are important uses of rare earths.
With the massive exploitation of human resources, the reserves of rare earths are gradually decreasing, but the reserves of rare earths are very rich, but there is a characteristic of rare earths, that is, the distribution of rare earths is uneven.
Globally, China occupies a dominant position in the world's rare earth supply, owning 80% of the world's rare earth resources, and other countries' dependence on rare earth resources is also increasing, so it is obviously very important for countries to explore and reserve rare earth resources.
However, just like oil, rare earths are very important in resource reserves, especially for national security and development, so the relevant departments also need to carry out strategic planning for rare earth resources.
2. The discovery of giant rare earth minerals.
In 2013, Japan conducted a large-scale scientific expedition to the North Pacific Ocean, and their scientists discovered this huge rare earth deposit.
This rare earth deposit is located at the bottom of the sea, about 5,000 kilometers away from the Japanese mainland, Japanese scientists through the exploration of this mineral deposit, came to the total amount of this mineral deposit of 160,000 tons, and the content of rare earth in the rock is also very high, reaching 30%, compared to the rare earth content on land, this is simply a world of difference.
According to the estimation of scientists, the rare earth reserves of this mineral deposit can be enough for 730 years of human use around the world, which shows how great the value of this mineral deposit is, in 2017, the Japan Oil, Gas and Metal Mining Resources Comprehensive Development Agency conducted another exploration of this mineral deposit, and found that there are a large number of titanium ore, manganese nodules and other non-ferrous metal deposits in this deposit.
At the same time, these mineral deposits are also the focus of Japan's future development, because the current global reserves of non-ferrous metals are gradually decreasing, and the mining of this seabed mineral deposit is still very difficult, so Japan now only regards this mineral deposit as a future reserve resource.
3. Why not mine.
This giant rare earth mine on the seabed is not something that can be mined casually, but faces a number of challenges, including technical, cost, distance and environmental obstacles.
1. Technical difficulties.
At present, the global mining technology of seabed mineral deposits is still very backward, and there is no special equipment for mining, which leads to the mining technology of seabed mineral deposits, which is also very immature and belongs to a new field, so there is no way to carry out large-scale mining.
2. Cost issues.
Even with the technology, it is estimated that the cost of mining seabed deposits is about 40 times that of land-based deposits, which means that if this deposit is extracted, the amount of money required to mine it will be very large.
3. The problem of distance.
This deposit is about 5,000 kilometers away from the Japanese mainland, and because of the long distance, it is also very inconvenient for the transportation of mining equipment, and there may be a lot of risks, which will also increase the cost of mining.
4. Environmental issues.
The exploitation of seabed mineral deposits will also cause damage to the marine ecology and environment, so it is necessary to plan scientifically before mining to reduce the damage to the marine ecology.
epilogue
As a strategic resource, the supply and reserve of rare earth are crucial to national security and development, so countries around the world also need to carry out international cooperation to jointly build a rare earth resource strategy to cope with the problem of insufficient resources in the future.
At the same time, when the mainland is engaged in rare earth mining, it also needs to reasonably control the mining volume to maintain the quality of resources and international competitiveness, and at the same time, it also needs to pay attention to the total reserves of rare earths to ensure the sustainable use of resources.