The Japanese scientific drilling vessel Chikyu completed a month-long mission near the remote Pacific island in February, about 1,900 km southeast of Tokyo. The mission marked the world’s first successful continuous lift of rare earth-bearing seabed mud from depths of around 6 km.
The find lands as Japan works to diversify its critical mineral supply chains amid tightening Chinese export controls on heavy rare earths and related magnets, materials central to the defense and automotive industries. Beijing imposed export controls on some heavy rare earths and related magnets in April 2025, then tightened restrictions on exports to Japan in January 2026 and twice more the following month, targeting major Japanese conglomerates.
About 50 metric tons of mud were recovered. The analysis identified yttrium, used in aerospace, energy, and semiconductor applications; gadolinium, used in magnetic resonance imaging and other high-tech systems; and dysprosium, used in high-performance magnets for electric vehicles, according to the Cabinet Office’s national platform for innovative ocean development.
Japan plans a month-long, large-scale mining trial in the same waters starting in February 2027, aiming to dredge 350 tons of mud a day. The recovered material will be dewatered at Minamitori Island, then shipped to the mainland for testing of separation, refining, and smelting technologies.
The trial is expected to verify the feasibility of domestic rare earth production, with a comprehensive assessment of industrialization prospects due by March 2028, said Kazushige Kikuchi, project manager at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), which operates the Chikyu.
