Exploration of Mineral and Energy Resources in and by Japan from 2022 to 2023

Abstract

Not high but extreme temperatures, wildfires, and heavy floods characterized the last two months of this one year from September 2022 to August 2023. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has continued still, and the end of the invasion cannot be predicted. Compared with these topics, topics of our fields are limited as follows: 1) Canadian exploration companies drilled high-grade gold ores at prospecting sites such as Hokuryu, Omui, Ryuo, Ikutahara,in northeastern Hokkaido, 2) the Abra project partly participated by a Japanese mining company commenced to mine lead ores, 3) JOGMEC joined an exploration project of awaruite Ni_2-3Fe mineralization, 4) two geothermal power stations commenced commercial operation at Nakao in Gifu and at Onikobe in Miyagi, and 5) some of oil companies started studies of CCS/CCUS in oil and gas fields.