The head of the Swedish company, Jan Moström, said the discovery is “good news” – not just for the region and Sweden, but for Europe and the climate. “It could become an important building block for the production of critical raw materials that are absolutely crucial for the green transition.” Batteries, catalytic converters, magnets and light bulbs.
“We have a supply problem. There can be no electric vehicles without mining,” Moström said in a broadcast. The “Per Geijer” deposit has a volume of more than one million tons, the company said. According to the company, the deposit will be able to cover a large part of the demand for rare earth metals in Europe.
IMAGO/TT/Jonas Ekströmer Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag (LKAB) produces iron ore and phosphorus for Europe
Promotion may take a while
Mostom said it could take “several years” to explore the deposit and the conditions to exploit it “profitably and sustainably”. That also depends on permits, he said at a news conference in the mining town of Kiruna. Experience shows that it takes “ten to 15 years” before the market can really be supplied. However, LKAB intends to apply for a mining license this year.
The company has already started preparations to conduct a drift several kilometers long and around 700 meters deep at the Kiruna mine to study the deposit “in detail”. It’s still unclear how big he actually is. They are aware of the land use challenges and impacts associated with mine development. According to Moström, an environmental assessment request can only be made after they have been analyzed.
Demand in the EU is increasing
Sweden’s Minister of Energy, Ebba Busch, was also present at the presentation of the discovery. She said the need for rare earths is great – after all, the EU is striving to convert to a fossil-free economy. Sweden has held the EU presidency since the beginning of the year and a delegation from the Brussels Commission is visiting the country.
According to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, lithium and rare earths should soon be more important than oil and gas in this context. Demand for rare earths alone is likely to increase fivefold by 2030 – in part because the EU wants to ban new cars with combustion engines by 2035.
IMAGO/Panthermedia bismuth crystals are rare – and sought after in times of energetic transition
Dependence on China as a problem
Minister Busch said on Thursday: “Electrification, EU self-sufficiency and independence from Russia and China start at the mine.” Europe is currently dependent on imports, according to the LKAB. The People’s Republic “completely” dominates the market, which increases the “vulnerability” of European industry.
The dependency does not only refer to the raw materials themselves, but also to their processing, according to geologist and raw materials expert Jochen Kolb of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany for Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). In the case of rare earths in particular, this dependency is already over 80%.
“Even if the raw materials were extracted elsewhere for mining, they would have to be brought to China to be processed so that they could be used here in industry,” says Kolb. Rare earths are also found in Europe, but first they need to be found and then mined – which is often not the will. After all, the social and ecological problems associated with mining are often transferred abroad.