Japan to Launch Deep-Sea Rare Earth Mining Trial in 2025

Japan will kick off the world's first trial of deep-sea mining of rare earth minerals from the ocean floor in January 2026, employing its research drill ship Chikyu. It is a major milestone for Japan's strategic drive to secure a stable source of critical minerals used in advanced technology as concern over China's dominance of the rare earth market grows.

The test will be conducted in Japanese exclusive economic waters around the Pacific Ocean island of Minami Torishima, Japan's easternmost hold, where there is a military base as well. Japan will conduct the extraction process 5,500 metres beneath the surface, the deepest effort yet to date to extract mineral-laden sediments from the ocean floor.

Rare earths, a collection of 17 metals, are pivotal in producing many of today's advanced technologies such as electric cars, wind turbines, cell phones, hard disks, and defense systems. The rare earths are brittle and expensive to extract and process, and China is now producing almost two-fifths of world mining output and more than 90% of refined rare earth supply, the International Energy Agency estimates.

Japan's move to initiate deep-sea mining tests comes after it recently signed agreements with the United States, India, and Australia to strengthen supply chain cooperation over critical minerals. It is a larger effort to decrease the country's dependency on China and diversify sources for rare earth elements in the context of trade disputes and international geopolitical uncertainty.

Japan's high-tech scientific drilling vessel Chikyu will be used to conduct this test to drill into seabed mud with rare earth minerals. The three-week process will entail the extraction of 35 tonnes of sediment for analysis. Though the quantity of material that is removed is not what the trial seeks to accomplish, the primary intent is to push the performance and upkeep of mining gear while under pressure in ultra-deep water.

The potential location, located in Japan's oceanic territory, is said to be rich in rare earth-bearing mud reserves. An estimated two kilograms of rare earth material is said to be present in one tonne of such mud. Success will open the door for other commercial-scale projects and help decrease the country's reliance on foreign minerals.

Deep-sea mining is still controversial. Environmentalists and ocean conservationists have expressed concerns about the potential effects of the mining activity on the marine environment. Seabed disturbance, sediment plumes, and disturbance of deep-sea diversity are some of the major risks of extracting materials from the seafloor. These issues have raised controversies on whether the prospective economic and strategic advantages outweigh the environmental impacts.

Internationally, the potential for deep-sea mining has been a geopolitical and regulatory hotbed. The US previously indicated that it prefers enhanced access to the critical minerals via deep-sea prospecting, but China furthered its grip on the export of rare earths by making its shipment subject to licence application from April 2025. Those actions have heightened competition for strategic materials and pushed countries like Japan towards seeking alternative domestic actions.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA), which oversees mineral activities in the high seas, is set to meet later this month to debate and even pass a regulation on deep-sea mining. The code is meant to provide guarantees that extraction in the high seas would be conducted responsibly and with due environmental protection. But since Japan's experiment is within its own economic zone, it is under national jurisdiction, and therefore the government can go ahead with its proposal without consulting it.
Japan has long been committed to seabed resource exploration, viewing the potential of its vast ocean jurisdictions to make the nation independent of foreign resources. The recent foray demonstrates decades of advancement and study and shows Japan's ambition to be a global leader in ocean-based resource extraction technology.

The outcome of the January trial will be watched with interest by governments, scientific establishments, environmental groups, and international technology companies. Success would speed the development of a Japanese industry for deep-sea mining and may even affect regulatory and commercial policy elsewhere. Alternatively, fierce environmental opposition or technical failure may slow or even prevent progress altogether.

As a result of the anticipated demand for rare earths that will be generated by global energy transition and increasing application of digital and green technologies, new, secure sources of supply are a priority concern for all but a handful of industrialised countries. With increasing competition, deep-sea mining is set to become a new sphere of resource geopolitics.

Japan's strategy for the forthcoming trial seems to be pushing capability, not immediate business returns. In monitoring how the gear performs at record depths, the state hopes to maximize its technology and acquire expertise for future massive deployments. The technical readiness issue arises from the difficulty of operating in deep-sea environments and the demands of accuracy, security, and disruption minimization.

In the months ahead, more will be known about the commercial feasibility, environmental hazards, and global implications of Japan's deep-sea mineral aspirations. Whether or not this experiment paves the way for sustainable and responsible resource exploitation or raises broader issues remains to be determined, but Japan's action squarely positions it at the epicentre of a defining debate about resource exploitation beneath the ocean floor.

Source: AFP via Thomson Reuters Foundation

Published on: 3 July 2025
Credit: www.context.news | Image credit: Government of Japan, The Chikyu (2013), CC BY-SA 3.0