"The mining of rare-earth minerals was at one time dominated by the United States. The People's Republic of China has since come to dominate the market."<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_mineral" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_mineral</a><p>Presumably because China doesn't mind the cost to its miners or the environment (for now).<p>If that should change then it might start to be viable to mine this deposit.
If these are underwater and the mining process on land is already extremely toxic. Does this mean that mining them underwater will release large amounts of toxins into the ocean?
China has controlled the market on these for some time, using this control to its geopolitical advantage many a time. If Japan wants the right to merely compete in the market, they're in for a fight.
It is interesting that the newest Pacific Rim mentions that the alien's objective is the "rare-earth" minerals in Japan.
Was this just a coincidence or did the writers do some actual research?