A huge deposit of rare earths has been discovered in Sweden

Sweden has announced the discovery of a huge deposit of rare earths, fundamental for the green transition and for which the EU depends on China.

• The largest European deposit of rare earths has been found in Sweden.
• These are chemical elements that are difficult to extract, but necessary for the green transition.
• At the moment we are exclusively dependent on China.

A huge deposit of rare earths has been discovered in Sweden, the largest ever found in Europe, which could become fundamental to free the European Union from the almost total monopoly currently exercised by China on these very precious resources.The discovery was made in Kiruna by Lkab, the state-owned Swedish state mining company:in a press conference called for the occasion, the CEO Jan Moström he spoke of resources of over a million tons of rare earths.

“This is good news, not only for Lkab, the region and the Swedish people, but also for Europe and the climate – explained Moström – This is the largest known deposit of rare earth elements in our part of the world and could become a key building block for the production of key raw materials that are absolutely crucial to enabling the green transition.We are facing a supply problem.Without rare earths, there can be no electric vehicles."

What are rare earths 

Rare earths are a group of chemical elements with similar physical and chemical properties used in a wide range of high-tech applications, including electronic devices, mobile phones, liquid crystal displays, batteries, wind turbines and magnets.

 It's about 17 chemical elements:scandium, yttrium and the 15 lanthanoids or, in the order of the periodic table, Lanthanum, Cerium, Praseodymium, Neodymium, Promethium, Samarium, Europium, Gadolinium, Terbium, Dysprosium, Holmium, Erbium, Thulium, Ytterbium and Lutetium.

Despite the name, the term “rare earths” is assigned to these special chemical elements found in minerals not because of their lack of presence, but due to their difficult identification as well as the complexity of the extraction and processing process of pure mineral.A complexity which also entails, in many cases, significant environmental impacts.

The largest warehouse in Europe

Kiruna, the northernmost city in Sweden, is located about 20 miles from the Arctic Circle in Swedish Lapland.The Lkab mining operation takes place in the immediate vicinity, in what was already considered the largest underground mineral mine in the world, and called Per Geijer.The large quantities of rare earths (Rare earth metals, or Ree) found would be sufficient to meet much of the EU's future demand for the production of permanent magnets needed for motors in, among other things, electric vehicles and wind turbines, giving a big boost to the use of renewable sources.

To date, no rare earth elements are mined in Europe and, at the same time, demand is expected to increase drastically in the coming years due to the electrification that European states are resorting to to meet commitments to reduce fossil-based CO2:this, explains Lkab, "will lead to a global under-supply, and consequently to a phase of growing geopolitical tensions". According to the assessment of the European Commission, demand for rare earth elements for electric cars and wind turbines, among others, is expected to increase more than fivefold by 2030.

Today Europe is almost totally dependent on imports of these minerals, in which China completely dominates the market, with an annual production of around 130 thousand tonnes (2019 data) and holding around 37 percent of the world's reserves.They follow United States, with 12 percent, the Myanmar (10.5) theAustralia (10) and then several African countries, generally politically unstable and characterized by strong Chinese economic influence.The road to self-sufficiency and independence of the EU from Russia (as regards fossils) and China can therefore pass from the discovery of the Kiruna deposit.

Still a long road

A road that is still long, however.The first step towards a possible extraction of rare earths from the Per Geijer deposit, located approximately 700 meters deep, is to make a concession request, which Lkab aims to obtain by 2023.After that, as explained by CEO Jan Moström himself, “it will take at least 10-15 years before we can actually start extracting and supplying raw materials to the market.But the attention of the European Commission on this issue is very high, to guarantee access to critical materials, and the Critical Raw Materials Act on which the Commission is working, is decisive.We need to change the permitting processes to ensure greater extraction of this type of raw material in Europe.Access is today a crucial risk factor both for the competitiveness of European industry and for the climate transition."

Negative environmental impacts

There is also a more critical aspect of the story.In fact, the extraction and processing of rare earths can have negative environmental impacts, such as deforestation, thewater pollution and the loss of habitat for animal species.In fact, before being usable, rare earths must be subjected to a process of dissolution in acids, filtering and cleaning, so that during processing produces toxic and, in some cases, radioactive products. THEIn this sense, what was reported by the BBC in a report that talks about the extraction of sea soil in Mongolia is enlightening.

For this reason, it is important that extraction and processing activities are conducted in a responsible and sustainable way.In general, rare earths are essential elements for development and economic growth, but their limited availability and the environmental impacts of extraction require careful management and diversification of sources.This is also why the European Union announced in September 2022 the launch of a Critical Raw Materials Act, with the aim of addressing Europe's dependence on China for rare earths and more generally for all those critical raw materials (including phosphorus and cobalt) essential to overcome the production of energy from fossil sources:the plan should be presented by the end of March 2023 and will identify strategic projects throughout the supply chain, from extraction to refining, from processing to recycling.

In her State of the European Union speech in September 2022, the President of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen he had recalled that "without safe and sustainable access to the necessary raw materials, our ambition to become the first climate-neutral continent is at risk".

 

“We must avoid becoming dependent again, as we have done with oil and gas,” Von der Leyen warned.“Soon lithium and rare earths will be more important than oil and gas.Our demand for rare earths alone will increase fivefold by 2030 and we must avoid becoming dependent again” as happened dramatically with Russia for fossil fuels.In the Commission's sights, supply must be above all sustainable and responsible, since the high concentration of supply in countries with lower social and environmental standards not only represents a risk for security of supply, but can also aggravate social and environmental problems.Which is why in Europe we look with great interest at the discovery made in a country with high standards like Sweden.