Japan found $26 billion under the sea, but this new scientific breakthrough might sink it before it starts

Time of India

3 days ago

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Science Surfaces a New Solution
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From Boom to Bust?
A Win for Oceans, If Not for Industry?
Just off the shores of Minami-Tori-shima , a remote Japanese island more than 1,200 miles from Tokyo, lies a treasure chest of rare metals . Discovered by a joint survey from The Nippon Foundation and the University of Tokyo , the seabed nearly 5,700 meters below the surface holds dense fields of manganese nodules. These nodules are packed with cobalt and nickel—two of the world's most sought-after elements for electric vehicle (EV) battery production.According to figures cited in a Business Insider report, this underwater find could yield 610,000 metric tons of cobalt and 740,000 metric tons of nickel—worth an astonishing combined total of $26.3 billion. Japan saw the discovery as a game-changer for resource security and planned a major extraction effort starting in 2026, aiming to tap into three million tonnes of nodules annually. With global EV demand booming, the future looked bright.But in the ever-shifting landscape of technological advancement, even the most lucrative plans can be swiftly upended.Enter McGill University , where researchers, in collaboration with scientists from the U.S. and South Korea, have introduced a potentially world-changing alternative. In a recent breakthrough, the team successfully created new lithium-ion battery cathodes using no cobalt or nickel at all. Instead, they developed high-quality disordered rock-salt (DRX) cathode particles—uniform in size, energy-efficient to produce, and ready for mass manufacturing.These DRX cathodes don't just match previous performance—they outperform them. According to study author and Assistant Professor Jinhyuk Lee, 'Our method enables mass production of DRX cathodes with consistent quality, which is essential for their adoption in electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.'The implications are enormous. Not only do these new materials make battery production cheaper and greener, but they also remove the need for hard-to-source metals like cobalt and nickel . Suddenly, Japan's underwater goldmine may no longer be as essential to the EV revolution as once imagined.The revelation brings a tough question to the forefront: Is Japan's $26 billion find already becoming obsolete before a single shipment reaches the surface? The country's future plans hinge on high cobalt and nickel prices. But if the new DRX-based technology scales up—and all signs point that it will—demand for these expensive minerals could fall significantly.For Japan, this shift is more than economic. It's also political and environmental. A joint venture involving multiple Japanese companies was slated to begin mining operations in just a year's time. The find was seen as a potential bulwark against rising import costs and resource dependencies. But the rapid pace of clean-tech innovation may be rewriting that story in real time.While the news may sting Japan's industrial ambitions, environmentalists are breathing a cautious sigh of relief. Deep-sea mining has long been criticized for its irreversible ecological damage. A previous test just off Minami-Tori-shima—lasting a mere two hours—caused fish and shrimp populations to drop by 43% within a year.As researcher Travis Washburn has warned, 'Even limited mining can have far-reaching, long-lasting impacts on ocean life.' Add to that the risk of destroying yet-undiscovered species and altering fragile ecosystems, and the stakes go far beyond economics.If the world can now build EVs without cobalt and nickel, perhaps nature will finally get to keep its secrets buried beneath the sea.Japan's undersea mineral trove was once thought to be a jackpot for the energy transition. But science may be offering a better way—one that trades mining for innovation, destruction for discovery.