Japan has announced the discovery of rare earth elements at record sea depths.
The government said on Monday that a deep-sea test mission in the Pacific Ocean had retrieved sediment containing rare earths from depths of 6,000 metres (about 20,000 feet). Tokyo has stepped up efforts to mine deep-sea deposits in a bid to reduce its dependence on China for the valuable minerals.
Government spokesman Kei Sato said the sample, recovered by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), was being analysed for the quantity of rare earth contained in the sediment.
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