Terres Rares

Rare earth war is declared.

Battle around lutetium, samarium and gadolinium. Since 2010, China restricted exports of these metals, essential for Japanese high-tech devices. While Tokyo replica track other suppliers, and puts the package on recycling.

September 7, 2010, a Chinese trawler nets off venturing the disputed islands of Senkaku in East China Sea, hits a Japanese patrol. This is a video that the Japanese authorities have long hesitated to show, and that the Chinese are not proud. The consequence of these images unvarnished said that raw materials have become a major economic weapon. Because after the collision, the tension between Beijing and Tokyo : to the arrest of the trawler captain, China responded by hitting Japan in its most sensitive point: the "rare earth". Exports are stopped.

Rare earths are the "vitamins" high-tech Japanese. Thanks to them, the Japanese - and the world - can strum on their smartphone, Toyota can develop its hybrid cars, and giant Sony exported worldwide computers. Also known as lanthanides, it is a family of 17 minerals decked names as mysterious as lutetium, gadolinium, dysprosium or samarium. Their electromagnetic properties have enabled modern electronics become more compact, lightweight and efficient. And in a country where technology irrigates swathes of industry, supplies of these minerals are of strategic importance.

"Without rare earths, Japanese industry would be totally destroyed," says Toru Okabe, Professor of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo. A statement that could have value prophecy. Poor in minerals, the basement of Japan does not conceal any gram of rare earths. To procure, Tokyo must look to its neighbor China, which produces 95% of rare earth on the planet. Now, with the crisis in September 2010, China has demonstrated that it could use its monopoly on the "twenty-first century oil" as a trump card in its foreign policy.

Industry in a panic

In its warehouses in Osaka, Kunihiro Fujita, dark suit and helmet, remembers the day his commands rare earth did not reach it: "All the Japanese manufacturers began to run inventory," says President the import company by touching the Metal Do yttria. "The industry was in a state of panic. "The embargo was lifted after six months, but imports of rare earth permanent fall down.

In 2011, Japan has indeed been able to get that 8000 tonnes of ore - three times less than its needs. And China announced a further reduction of 27% of its export quotas for 2012! "Over the past decade, it restricts its exports. This forces our high-tech industries to relocate to their production to take advantage of better access to these minerals, "says the broker Shigeo Nakamura, in his office overlooking Tokyo. With this program planned asphyxia, China is turning into a great power in the segment of high value-added technologies. To maintain its high-tech industry, Japan is engaged in a race against the clock. Objective: To ensure its independence mineral securing alternative sources of rare earths. Good news: "Rare earths are not rare," says Yuko Yasunaga, Director of the Division of Mineral Resources, Ministry of Industry.

The man has spent the past two years to explore for lanthanides in countries as diverse as Kazakhstan, Vietnam, India, the United States ... and especially Australia. Under an agreement signed between Canberra and the Japanese trading house Sojitz, "9000 tons of rare earths extracted from the Mount Weld mine (in Western Australia, ed) could be exported to Japan from next year, "says Yuko Yasunaga. At the University of Tokyo, Professor Yasuhiro Kato provides, meanwhile, have found extraordinary deposits in the basement of the Pacific: "We believe that the reserves are 800 times higher than those we can find the surface of the earth, "enthuses the researcher shaking a small vial filled with a reddish powder. "I am hopeful that it will be possible to exploit these deposits by ten to twenty years. '

Yuko Yasunaga even suspect the JOGMEC - Japan National Corporation for oil, gas and metals, a government agency responsible for the sustainable supply of raw materials - have already compiled strategic stockpile of rare earths in case severe crisis. And March 13, Japan joined

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