Rare Earths

[dealmaker]

Rare Earths

Certain "rare earths"—a group of minerals that are essential for building gadgetry from smartphones to smart cars—are no longer looking quite so rare, after researchers found more than 16 million tons of the stuff off the coast of a tiny Japanese island. That's enough, for some of the elements, to supply the world on a "semi-infinite basis." The news boosted shares in Japanese offshore extraction companies and machinery makers. Japan Times

 

[bone]

If that comes to fruition that's bad news for China and great news for the rest of the world.

 

[zdreg]

Rare Earths

Certain "rare earths"—a group of minerals that are essential for building gadgetry from smartphones to smart cars—are no longer looking quite so rare, after researchers found more than 16 million tons of the stuff off the coast of a tiny Japanese island. That's enough, for some of the elements, to supply the world on a "semi-infinite basis." The news boosted shares in Japanese offshore extraction companies

how important is this discovery to Tesla?

 

[Overnight]

how important is this discovery to Tesla?

The company or the dead guy?

 

[vanzandt]

how important is this discovery to Tesla?

TSLA needs Lithium for batteries. LI is not a rare earth element.

.....SQM is a buy at $50. They're about Lithium. ALB @ $90 too.

 

[HobbyTrading]

Rare Earths

Certain "rare earths"—a group of minerals that are essential for building gadgetry from smartphones to smart cars—are no longer looking quite so rare, after researchers found more than 16 million tons of the stuff off the coast of a tiny Japanese island. That's enough, for some of the elements, to supply the world on a "semi-infinite basis." The news boosted shares in Japanese offshore extraction companies and machinery makers. Japan Times

I am surprised to see these news articles today. Checking the island's Wikipedia page I read that this is already known for several years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minami-Tori-shima

Minami-Tori-Shima area rare earth deposits
In January 2013, a deep-sea research vessel of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology obtained seven deep-sea mud core samples from the seafloor at 5,600 to 5,800 meters depth, approximately 250 kilometres (160 mi) south of the island.[9] The research team found a mud layer 2 to 4 meters beneath the seabed that is extremely concentrated in rare earth oxides (REO). Analytical results showed that the maximum REO content in the mud was up to 0.66% REO. The deposit compares in grade with the ion-absorption-type deposits in southern China that provide the bulk of Chinese REO mine production, which grade in the range of 0.05% to 0.5% REO.[10] [11]