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Japan has announced the discovery of rare earth elements at record sea depths.

The government said on Monday that a deep-sea test mission in the Pacific Ocean had retrieved sediment containing rare earths from depths of 6,000 metres (about 20,000 feet). Tokyo has stepped up efforts to mine deep-sea deposits in a bid to reduce its dependence on China for the valuable minerals.

Government spokesman Kei Sato said the sample, recovered by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), was being analysed for the quantity of rare earth contained in the sediment.

She called the retrieval of the sediment “a meaningful achievement both in terms of economic security and comprehensive maritime development”.

On Sunday, Science and Technology Minister Yohei Matsumoto, whose ministry oversees JAMSTEC’s work, announced in a social media post that “rare earth mud” had been collected by research vessel Chikyu.

The deep-sea scientific drilling boat set sail last month for the remote Pacific island of Minami Torishima, where surrounding waters are believed to contain a rich trove of valuable minerals.

The area around Minami Torishima, which is in Japan’s economic waters, is estimated to contain more than 16 million tonnes of rare earths. The Nikkei business daily says it is the third-largest reserve globally.

Late last year, Japan signed an agreement with the United States to coordinate on securing the supply of rare earths, with both eyeing China’s control of much of the world’s critical minerals.

In particular, Japan fears that China, the world’s biggest supplier of rare earths, could choke exports of the mineral due to strained diplomatic relations.

As tempers have flared in recent months, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested Tokyo could react militarily should China attack Taiwan.

Japan, which imports roughly 70 percent of its rare earths from China, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, was spooked when Beijing responded to Takaichi’s remarks by blocking exports of “dual-use” items with potential military uses.

Rare earths, 17 metals difficult to extract from the Earth’s crust, are used in everything from electric vehicles to hard drives, wind turbines and missiles.

China has executed four people found guilty of causing six Chinese citizens’ deaths and running scam and gambling operations out of Myanmar worth more than $4bn.

The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court in southern China announced the executions on Monday morning in a statement. However, the timing of the executions was not clear.

The executions of 11 other people convicted of running scam centres in Myanmar had been announced last week.

The Shenzhen court sentenced five people accused of running a network of scam centres and casinos to death in November. One of the defendants, group leader Bai Suocheng, died of illness before the sentence was carried out.

The group had established industrial parks in Myanmar’s Kokang region bordering China, from where they allegedly ran gambling and telecom scam operations involving abductions, extortion, forced prostitution, and drug manufacturing and trafficking.

They defrauded victims of more than 29 billion yuan ($4.2bn) and caused the deaths of six Chinese citizens and injuries to others, the court said.

Their crimes “were exceptionally heinous, with particularly serious circumstances and consequences, posing a tremendous threat to society”, the court’s statement said.

The defendants appealed the verdict, but the Guangdong Provincial High People’s Court dismissed their applications, it added.

The executions are part of a broader crackdown by Beijing on scam operations in Southeast Asia, where scam parks have become an industrial-scale business, especially in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.

A mix of trafficked and willing labour has carried out digital scams on victims around the world, including thousands of Chinese citizens.

Authorities in the region face growing international pressure from China, the United States and other nations to address the proliferation of crime.

Experts say most of the centres are run by Chinese-led crime syndicates working with Myanmar armed groups, taking advantage of the country’s instability amid the ongoing war.

Myanmar’s military government has long been accused of turning a blind eye, but it has trumpeted a crackdown over the last year after being lobbied by key military backer China, experts say.

In October, more than 2,000 people were arrested in a raid on KK Park, an infamous scam centre on Myanmar’s border with Thailand.