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

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

#31

Post by chmod775 »

londons_explore wrote: post #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…

You are aware we're talking about a large scale mining operation here?

That doesn't just mean surveying and analysis, but may also involve such things as resettling people, planning new routes for existing rivers and other water, as well as figuring out externalities that will remain after mining is done, but still should be accounted for.

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

#32

Post by [deleted] »

londons_explore wrote: post #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…

[deleted]

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

#33

Post by marginalia_nu »

daaayum wrote: post #18
moonchrome wrote: post #12

> 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.

There's some legal hurdles to this.

It would be unconstitutional for a Swedish government to meddle in individual decisions of its agencies (including courts), and they in turn are required to act impartially.

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

#35

Post by raspberry1337 »

londons_explore wrote: post #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…

I used to think that the 40K universe was ridicolous when it states that the human empire is hamstringed, outright decaying, through 'bureaucracy' - I don't think that anymore.

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

#36

Post by moonchrome »

capableweb wrote: post #17
moonchrome wrote: post #12

> 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.

Ok but why is this news worthy ? Predicting industry demand in 15 years is pointless. I mean I remember 15 years ago everyone was talking about "peak oil imminent collapse". This seems irrelevant for problems of today so framing it as a solution to these is ridiculous. By the time these start producing most of Europe has already proposed ICE bans.

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

#37

Post by kzrdude »

Mrdarknezz wrote: post #13
wuiheerfoj wrote: post #4

‚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...

LKAB is 100% owned by the Swedish state. 2021 the dividend was pretty large and apparently around 1000 SEK per swede. Well if it would have been paid that way, it's going into the govt balance sheet of course.

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

#38

Post by defrost »

littlestymaar wrote: post #34

I find it suprising that two posts talking about this topic are currently on the front page, although it's not the typical HN material. Maybe it's just a coincidence, or maybe there's something worth investigating for dang.

HN cares about IT and there being conditions suitable for IT.

This means an interest in metals for electronics and suitable for climate related tech.

Ergo you'll see news about copper, rare earths, battery technology advances, hydrogen, etc all hit the front page and often rise.

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

#39

Post by detrites »

LudwigNagasena wrote: post #23
bradhe wrote: post #11

Wonder what the practical implications of a million tonnes is? For industry, is a million tonnes really that much?

According to a quick google, there are approximately 120 million metric tons of rare earths in the world. So that's not a minuscule amount, but also not earth-shattering.

Seems about 200-300k is mined per year worldwide [0], so maybe it is a large amount if it could account for 3-4 years worth of the worlds mined supply.

[0] - https://www.kitco.com/news/2022-02-07/Global-rare-earth-meta...

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

#40

Post by raspberry1337 »

Mrdarknezz wrote: post #13
wuiheerfoj wrote: post #4

‚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...

It's a completely hypothetical process that has 0 proven results and already involved shady deadlings with government, where government officials are chatting with CEO's about how to hide details:

'"As you probably know, it is almost never possible to hide entire documents," she writes apologetically.' [0]

[0]https://www.svd.se/a/pQnQaw/hybrit-har-blivit-ett-klagg

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