Japan Government to Increase Budget for Resource Security in F2009

Japanese government will increase the budget by 29.7% year-on-year to 14.35 billion yen for Mineral & Natural Resources Devision of Resources & Energy Agency under Minsitry of Economy, Trade & Industry (METI) for fiscal 2009 (Apr09-Mar10) along the draft budget announced by Ministry of Finance. The budget will be expanded for stable procurement of rare metals and other resources, including development of submarine hydrothermal deposits.

METI’s budget will be increased by 8.3% year-on-year to 7.03 billion yen for exploration development and by 74.9% to 5.32 billion yen for rare metal related measures in fiscal 2009. The government aims strategic resource diplomacy, exploration supports, recycle, development of substitutable materials, and reserves of rare metals.

The budget for development of submarine hydrothermal deposits will be tripled to 1.5 billion yen in fiscal 2009 to improve mining and environmental impact expecting technologies and to implement the basic survey of submarine environment.

The budget is also concerned on new activities such as mineral resource exploration technology development by remote sensing, new smelting process development for low grade ores, establishment of the rare metal recycling system from used mobile appliances, and rare earth recycling from factories.