gCaptain26 Jul 2026Macro
Automatically composed with AI from the cited sources
An analysis of rare earth-rich mud recovered in February by Japan’s drilling vessel Chikyu near Minamitori Island found medium and heavy rare earth elements accounted for about 54% of the total rare earth content. The government did not disclose deposit size, citing insufficient data from the limited month-long sampling mission that lifted roughly 50 metric tons of mud from a depth of around 6 km. The material contained yttrium, gadolinium, and dysprosium. A large-scale mining trial targeting 350 tons of mud per day is planned at the same site from February 2027, with a comprehensive industrialization assessment due by March 2028.