Japan is sitting on a gold mine… well not actually gold but a pretty payout
Around 230 million tons of the critical Earth and transitional metal were found in Japan and are expected to propel the country’s economy forward.
Scientists in Japan have made a discovery that has likely made the country significantly richer.
So rich in fact, the discovery will be able to keep its economy going for at least the next decade. So, not a bad find at all.
A survey by The Nippon Foundation and the University of Tokyo found a field of dense manganese nodules on the seabed of Minami-Tori-shima island.
The nodules, 5,700 meters below sea level, contained millions of metric tons of cobalt and nickel. It is believed they formed over millions of years as metals transported in the ocean attached themselves to fish bones and stuck to the seabed.
The manganese nodules found on the sea bed (The Nippon Foundation)
Now, that might not really sound that impressive, I mean you expect most big finds that offer a massive payout to be gemstones, right?
Well, cobalt and nickel are two transition metals and are crucial components needed to create electric vehicle (EV) batteries and are also used to make jet engines, gas turbines and in chemical processing.
So, how does this discovery transition into keeping its economy going for a decade?
Well, the survey found around 610,000 metric tons of cobalt and 740,000 metric tons of nickel, which equates to a staggering amount of money.
Following the most recent survey, Yasuhiro Kato, a professor specializing in resource geology at the University of Tokyo, said that excavators now plan to lift ‘three million tons annually’ from the deposits and this will get started in the new year.
A press release from the University of Tokyo spoke of the potential benefits of this discovery and future mining endeavors.
The deposits also contain copper (The Nippon Foundation)
The release read: “Ultimately, we expect that our research outcomes will help boost Japan’s growth by establishing a domestic supply chain stretching from ‘resource-mining’ to ‘manufacturing’, and make Japan a science-technology, and ocean-oriented nation in a true sense of word.”
At the time of writing, one metric ton of cobalt is worth $24,300, while nickel is worth $15,497, according to market figures from Trading Economics.
Doing some simple math, it means the 610,000 metric tons of cobalt found was worth $14,823,000,000, while the 740,000 tons of nickel comes in at $11,467,780,000.
That gives us an eye-watering total of $26,290,780,000.
While these prices aren’t exactly set in stone, since markets can fluctuate for better or worse, but it is certainly a lucrative find all the same.
As well as nickel and cobalt, the deposits also contain copper, another valuable element.
