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Europe's largest deposit of rare earth metals discovered in Sweden

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11–20 of 341 posts

Re: Europe's largest deposit of rare earth metals discovered in Sweden

#13

‚metals which are essential for, among other applications, the manufacture of electric vehicles and wind turbines‘ Great way to frame mining as eco-friendly haha. Is my take too skeptical? Are these very specific metals to eco-friendly production?

The company that owns the mine LKAB are together with swedish Steel producer SSAB producing fossilfree steel. They are working with Volvo to build their electric cars with this steel https://www.ssab.com/en/news/2021/08/the-worlds-first-fossil...

Re: Europe's largest deposit of rare earth metals discovered in Sweden

#15
Just hematite, apatite and phosphorus, which is mined there for over hundred years already. What is new that they decided to use the new other minerals than iron ore from apatite, mainly Titan, and they'd need phosporus for fertilisers. There's also lot of V (Vanadium) needed for steel.

This Per Geijer deposite (already mined since the late 1800's) is close to the old and new Kiirunavaara mine.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Sketch-map-of-the-geolog...

Re: Europe's largest deposit of rare earth metals discovered in Sweden

#16
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the town they had to move due to mining, wasn't it? I hope this doesn't mean they have to move it again :)

Who needs dowsing rods when you can just move a town and see where it goes to find the next big deposit.

Haha yeah, like Chief White Halfoat in Catch 22

Re: Europe's largest deposit of rare earth metals discovered in Sweden

#17

> If we look at how other permit processes have worked within our industry, it will be at least 10-15 years before we can actually begin mining and deliver raw materials to the market. Meh ?

Maybe not super familiar for speed/"velocity" addicted software engineers working on web apps, but things like mining, construction and other huge operations take some time to complete, and safety in modern countries is a huge factor when doing things like this, which adds a lot of time as well.

Re: Europe's largest deposit of rare earth metals discovered in Sweden

#18

> If we look at how other permit processes have worked within our industry, it will be at least 10-15 years before we can actually begin mining and deliver raw materials to the market. Meh ?

This is going to have a mayor impact on Swedish politics. A new government is recently installed and this is the first mayor (public) opportunity for them to make a big impact on Europe from a sustainability, financial and political perspective. Expect A LOT faster result than 10-15 years.

Re: Europe's largest deposit of rare earth metals discovered in Sweden

#19

‚metals which are essential for, among other applications, the manufacture of electric vehicles and wind turbines‘ Great way to frame mining as eco-friendly haha. Is my take too skeptical? Are these very specific metals to eco-friendly production?

The company that owns the mine LKAB are together with swedish Steel producer SSAB producing fossilfree steel. They are working with Volvo to build their electric cars with this steel https://www.ssab.com/en/news/2021/08/the-worlds-first-fossil...

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Re: Europe's largest deposit of rare earth metals discovered in Sweden

#20
> If we look at how other permit processes have worked within our industry, it will be at least 10-15 years...

When it takes 15 years simply to get permission to do something, you know that your country will never be competitive globally.

Either the benefits outweigh the downsides, or vice versa. A group of 10 of the right experts ought to be able to decide that in a week.

Spending 15 years paper-pushing, doing court battles, public enquiries, etc. just delays the process. At the end of the day, you will end up either doing it or not doing it, and whatever you choose is best decided quickly (with the right expertise).

Perhaps we should adopt a system like for the choosing of popes - we lock the experts in a room till they come up with a consensus conclusion.

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