Jamaica and Japan on Monday started cooperation on rare earth extraction by breaking ground for a pilot plant amid concerns from local environmentalists.

The plant in St. Andrew, funded by Japanese company Nippon Light Metal with initial investment of 3 million US dollars, is expected to extract some 1,500 metric tonnes of rare earth oxides annually from Jamaican red mud.

"This project represents the kind of industrial diversification that this country needs, if it is to realize its economic potential and improve the living standards of the people," Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said.

However, environmentalists showed reluctance to fully support the rare earth strategy of the country.

"Specifically, we have requested details of the precise type of process that will be used ... before I can really comment on what the environmental impacts are," Diana McCaulay, CEO of the Jamaica Environment Trust, told local newspaper Observer.

Rare earth, a group of 17 chemical elements, is a non-renewable natural resource with increasingly wider application in high-tech sectors.

Japan has made huge investments on the rare earth industry in Kazakhstan and Vietnam in recent years and is still striving for the strategic resource across the world.