Media: find large stockpiles of rare earth metals in the Pacific

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Japanese media on Monday for Japanese researchers was the discovery of large stockpiles of rare earth metals in the bottom of the Pacific and the size of a thousand times more than those on the ground.


The Nikkei business daily, the amount of deposits is estimated one hundred billion tons.

The reports said they believe it lies at a depth of between 3500 to 6000 meters and covers an area estimated at more than 11 million square meters.

China stresses that produce 97 percent of the supply of rare earth metals at the level of world trade in the metal which is used in strategic high-tech electronics and Amonatisaat and batteries, causing fears of a global supply and raises the jumps in prices.



, Said the reports to be published study by researchers from the University of Tokyo and the Japanese Agency for Geosciences - Navy and Technology on Monday in the electronic version of the Journal of Earth science.

The Japanese Finance Ministry said last month that Japan's imports of rare earth metals from China fell by 3 percent in May from April, the first decline on a monthly basis in three months with the price of the metal.


And demand could rise later in the year, with Japan continued to recover from an earthquake on March 11 .