Rare Earths from the Bottom of the Sea

A vast deposit of rare earth minerals has been found in the Pacific seabed within the Japanese exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the island of Minami-Torishima - some 1,250 miles south of Tokyo. Mud samples taken from the seabed about 18,000 feet down are of “superb quality,” registering a rare earth density of between 1,000 and 1,500 ppm (parts per million) - several times higher than rare earth depots found in China, whose density averages 400 ppm. The discovery was made by a team led by Yasuhiro Kato, an earth science professor at Tokyo University. - Yoshiko Sakurai Official Web Site (metric measurements deleted).

    Rare earths are essential for many of our modern electronical gizmos. Red China is the principle producer these days, and they have been restricting their export recently (surprise, surprise).
    "Superb quality". Well, they are 4 times denser than what you might find in China, but it's still only one-tenth of one percent. Not very stinking much, it still means you are going to have to process a thousand tons of ore to get one ton of metal. Plus this stuff is at the bottom of the sea, over 3 miles down. That's not as deep as some of the oil wells being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico, but it's pretty stinking deep. I imagine they are probably going to use ROV (remotely operated vehicles) and maybe some really long hoses. It's going to be a major engineering effort to haul enough dirt up to the surface to make it worthwhile.
    The island is really in the middle of nowhere. Iwo Jima and Wake Island are it's nearest neighbors and they are almost 1,000 miles away.
    A story in the Telegraph got me started.

Update December 2016 replaced missing picture.