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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

#51

Post by Someone »

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…

FTA: “LKAB has already started to prepare a drift, several kilometres long, at a depth of approximately 700 metres in the existing Kiruna mine towards the new deposit in order to be able to investigate it at depth and in detail.“

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

#52

Post by Delk »

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.

Since AFAIK most of the current production of rare earth metals is in China and (to an extent) the United States, large deposits being found in Europe would be interesting from a general technology point of view, IMO.

Kiruna also has some of the largest mines in Europe, so the headline might catch some people's attention.

Of course multiple posts linking to a company press release might seem a bit curious.

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

#53

Post by wyuenho »

For a block that won't even grant a rocket launchpad permit, I'd say this timeline is probably optimistic.

  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.

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

#54

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

londons_explore wrote: post #47
chmod775 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Doing those things will take time, sure. But making the decision whether those things should be done should not take long.

I'm sure that's based on your long experience setting up mining operations?

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

#55

Post by fmajid »

fl_ciq wrote: post #43
bradhe wrote: post #11

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

Rare earths aren't really that rare, so probably not. Everyone has lots of rare earths, the rare thing is an environmental policy that allows them to be mined economically.

The reason why China dominates supply is their willingness to operate the incredibly dirty refining process.

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

#56

Post by LatteLazy »

"Rare" earth metals are actually not that rare.

The reason we (in the west) don't mine much is that they are very dirty to refine. We don't want pools of toxic waste left over from refining all over the place but China etc will tolerate those.

Given the ore itself is (ironically) quite common, all the mining happens where the refining happens because why would you bother shipping tonnes of ore there when is so common.

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

#57

Post by wodenokoto »

robin_reala wrote: post #48

Not exactly surprising that it’s in Sweden, as many rare earth metals were first discovered here and are named after Swedish things: - Scandium from Scandinavia - Yttrium, Terbium, Erbium and Ytterbium from the village of Ytterby - Holmium from Stockholm - Thulium from Thule

Isn't Thule on Greenland (or are there multiple Thule around?)

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

#58

Post by rafaelmelhem »

robin_reala wrote: post #48

Not exactly surprising that it’s in Sweden, as many rare earth metals were first discovered here and are named after Swedish things: - Scandium from Scandinavia - Yttrium, Terbium, Erbium and Ytterbium from the village of Ytterby - Holmium from Stockholm - Thulium from Thule

Would Thorium be part of that list as well?

Edit: I kinda know that because I have some weird passion about the elements of periodic table and because I'm reading "Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of The Elements From Arsenic To Zinc" which I really recommend!

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

#59

Post by tokai »

esel2k wrote: post #10

Kiruna has a long history about mining incl world war II importance for iron. Also due execessive minig the whole town needed to be moved: “In 2004, it was decided that the present centre of the municipality would have to be relocated to counter mining-related subsidence.[29] The relocation would be made gradually over the coming decade. On January 8, 2007, a new location was proposed, northwest to the foot of the Lu…

Yeah the Swedes helped Nazi Germany immensely selling them high quality iron. There were invasion plans drawn up going from German controlled Narvik to Kiruna, but the Swedes was so accommodating that it wasn't needed.

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

#60

Post by guerrilla »

LatteLazy wrote: post #56

"Rare" earth metals are actually not that rare. The reason we (in the west) don't mine much is that they are very dirty to refine. We don't want pools of toxic waste left over from refining all over the place but China etc will tolerate those. Given the ore itself is (ironically) quite common, all the mining happens where the refining happens because why would you bother shipping tonnes of ore there when is so common…

No, that's not the only reason. It's also just currently a lot cheaper in China, so European mines can't afford to operate (I believe due to the very low density of deposits), so we keep the closed in reserve. There's awareness that this is probably a strategic mistake but as far as I know nobody's doing anything about that yet.
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