About us

Osaka Bay Mining is dedicated to exploring undersea locations for rare earth metal concentrations and developing the mining infrastructure required to capitalize upon this multi-billion dollar market.  We focus our operations in a variety of locations throughout the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea, and the wider Pacific Ocean.

Worldwide production of rare earth metals exceeds 130,000 tons.  In terms of consumption, Japan is the 2nd largest consumer of rare earth metals, with approximately 25% of global consumption, driven by its electronics, scientific and advanced manufacturing industries.  The Japanese Ministry for Economy, Trade and Industry’s (METI) Agency for Natural Resources & Energy have implemented several policies with the aim of creating a conducive business environment for developing production of rare earth metals in the Japan.

Osaka Bay Mining’s exploration locations are within 200km of the coast of the islands of Japan, including Kiisuido Strait and Harima-nada Sea, and Osaka Bay itself (the Osaka Bay Complex), in the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea, and the wider Pacific Ocean, including the Okinawa Through.  Following our initial exploration of over 200 sites, we estimate that in excess of 80 billion tons of rare earth metals are deposited in the sediment on the floor of the Pacific Ocean.

Osaka Bay Mining has two major geographical spheres of exploration:

Okinawa Trough

  • It is an active, initial back-arc rifting basin which has formed behind the Ryukyu arc-trench system in the West Pacific
  • The Philippine Sea Plate is sub-ducting under the Eurasian Plate
  • The Okinawa Trough has a large plateau at 1,000m depth, with a maximum depth of 2.7km
  • High concentrations of rare earth metals are produced by the numerous hydrothermal vent fields within the trough


Osaka Bay Complex

  • Comprising of Kiisuido Strait and Harima-nada Sea, and Osaka Bay itself
  • The waters between the Osaka, Wakayama and Tokushima Prefectures include hundreds of volcanic islands and islets
  • The region has dynamic tectonic and volcanic features
  • Preliminary studies have found the wider Osaka Bay region to have high concentrations of rare earth metals