Abundant rare-earth deposits under ocean depths could end China’s monopoly

China's monopoly over its underground rare-earth metals could end with the discovery of massive deposits of these hi-tech minerals on the Pacific floor, according to a study.

China supplies 97 per cent of the world's production of 17 rare-earth elements, used in several high tech product applications including electric cars, flat-screen TVs, iPods, superconducting magnets, lasers, missiles, night-vision goggles, wind turbines and several others.

Though these elements carry exotic names such as neodymium, promethium and yttrium, however, despite their "rare-earth" tag these are abundant in the earth's crust. The problem however, is that the land deposits of the elements are thin and scattered around, so only a few sites are commercially exploitable partly due to the tough environment restrictions.
 
The production of these elements is almost wholly restricted to China, which boasts a third of the world reserves while another third is with former Soviet republics, the US and Australia.

However, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, extraordinary concentration of rare-earth elements are present at great depths on the Pacific floor.

Japanese geologists studied samples from 78 sites covering a major portion of the centre-eastern Pacific at longitudes between 120 and 180 degrees.
 
Scientists found rich deposits in samples taken more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) from the mid-ocean ridges of the Pacific.
 
The build up of the material has happened through millions of years, depositing at the rate of less than half a centimetre (0.2 of an inch) per thousand years.

According to reports at one site in the central North Pacific, an area of just one square kilometre (0.4 of a square mile) could meet a fifth of the world's annual consumption of rare metals and yttrium.