Seltene Erden: USA und Japan planen tiefste Unterwasser-Mine der Welt
Vor Japans Insel Minami-Torishima wollen Washington und Tokio Rohstoffe vom Meeresboden fördern. Das Projekt ist technisch riskant, geopolitisch brisant – und könnte China provozieren.
Tokyo - The United States and Japan are advancing plans for an unprecedented deep-sea mining project in the Pacific, targeting the remote Japanese island of Minami-Torishima. The goal is to extract rare earth elements from the ocean floor, challenging China's dominance in these strategically important resources. At a March meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the White House, the island's significance seemed minimal.
However, it is now considered geopolitically crucial. Beneath the seabed south of Minami-Torishima lie valuable resources that could potentially meet industrial demands for centuries. Despite decades of ocean floor exploration, no large-scale deep-sea mining project has been commercially successful. The deposits are located at a depth of about six kilometers, significantly deeper than previous offshore drilling projects.
If the project succeeds, Japan and the U.S. could establish a nearly self-sufficient supply chain for rare earth elements. For both governments, this would represent a significant strategic breakthrough, as China currently plays a key role in many of these resources.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
