Japan Finds Mother Lode Of Rare Earth Metals Far Off Tokyo Coast (VIDEO)

Significant deposits of rare earth metals discovered off the coast of Japan may prove to be an industrial game-changer in the face of China's monopoly on the elements, which are vital to high-tech industries, a new report by the Telegraph stated.

"We have found deposits that are just two to four meters from the seabed surface at higher concentrations than anybody ever thought existed, and it won't cost much at all to extract," said professor Yasuhiro Kato from Tokyo University, the leader of the team that made the discovery, according to the Telegraph.

Rare earth metals, or rare earth elements, are a set of 17 chemical elements on the periodic table, specifically the lanthanide group plus scandium and yttrium.

Used in iPads, hi-def TVs, lasers and myriad other technologies, rare earth metals are the life blood of the technology industry.

Dysprosium, for instance, is the strongest magnet in the world and used in batteries for hybrid cars. There is an estimated 200 years' supply of the rare earths beneath the island, according to this video by the BBC.

The findings will be a boon to Japan's tech-heavy industrial economy, which relies heavily on the elements.

According to the Telegraph, China monopolizes 97 percent of the global supply of rare earth metals after driving rival suppliers out of business in the 1990s, and then restricting its own export of the metals in 2009.

"Their real intention is to force foreign companies to locate [their plants] in China. They're saying 'if you want our rare earth metals, you must build your factory here, and we can then steal your technology," said Kato.

The metal deposits lie deep in the mud beneath the island Minami-Torishima, the eastern-most territory of Tokyo, which is some 800 miles off the east coast of Japan's capital and rests within Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone.

The deposits are more than 13,000 feet beneath the ocean, but Kato and his team are confident the extraction of the minerals will be fairly simple by using pressurized air, which will cause minimal seafloor disturbance and not require leaching, the report stated.

Kato also said that just one ship extracting the metals would be enough to supply Japan's industry for a year, but hinted at a strategy much deeper than the minerals deposit itself.

More than half of the deposits beneath Minami-Torishima are the heavier earth metals, such as dysprosium, which will likely make heavy-earth-metal-dominant China cringe.

"We don't need to mine it intensively. All we need is enough to force China to lower its prices," Kato said.