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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

#101

Post by actionfromafar »

tokai wrote: post #59
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.

Also sold ball bearings for the Spitfire to the UK, and trained tens of thousands of Norwegian "police" in exile during the Nazi occupation of Norway. Gotta hedge your bets. (Or make the best of being between a rock and hard place.)

Churchill famously quipped when Sweden started to build atomic shelters during the 1950s something along the lines of - "why? who are you going to fight"

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

#102

Post by jagaerglad »

robin_reala wrote: post #81
Majestic121 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, good catch : > Thorium was discovered in 1828 by the Norwegian amateur mineralogist Morten Thrane Esmark and identified by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who named it after Thor, the Norse god of thunder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium

There’s also tungsten: “tung” is heavy, and “sten” stone in Swedish.

There's also Gadolinium after Johan Gadolin

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

#103

Post by lm28469 »

jamil7 wrote: post #26
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?

> Great way to frame mining as eco-friendly What's the alternative? If we want to electrify, it means more resource discovery and mining than we're already doing, plus likely mining more non-renewable fuels to power the intermediate infrastructure we will need to mine or recycle metals for renewables or EVs.

> What's the alternative?

Degrowth, using less of everything, only keeping what we truly need instead of producing insane amount of next to useless junk, stop shipping bananas to the other side of the planet to have half of them end up in a trash anyways, &c. Basic common sense stuff that we won't do because we need that sweet sweet "growth" at all cost.

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

#104

Post by Tangurena2 »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #62

Isn't rare earth metals mining insanely pollutive? I've heard they can be found all over the world but only China mines them massively because nobody else is willing to destroy their ecology.

The slag from refining is horribly toxic. Mineral deposits are also high in Actinides (the bottom row of the periodic table) which makes them radioactively unsafe.

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

#105

Post by ElectricalUnion »

krona wrote: post #72
loxdalen wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also the sami peoples reindeer herding, safety, environmental impact, relocating, buying land. You could not decide things like this in a week if you have a system where human and ecological rights are respected.

The environmental impact would be net positive. If it isn't, then there's little to discuss in Sweden, it simply won't happen. Everything else is just details.

> Worldwide, the environmental impact might end up being net positive.

FTFY.

Mining never ends well for the local mine environment.

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

#106

Post by coremoff »

jeltz wrote: post #87
wodenokoto wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Thule comes from a Greek cartographer, Pytheas. Thule was supposed to be an island to the north of Britain, but nobody knows what he referred to or if whatever place he referred to even was real. Some people, especially 19th century Scandinavian nationalists, associate Thule with Scandinavia.

this is possibly in reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland

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

#107

Post by [deleted] »

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

[deleted]

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

#108

Post by FpUser »

htkibar wrote: post #82
type0 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? Turkey will not allow it to join, until Erdogan is in power.

They will be made to allow it. And hopefully that guys reign is nearing its end.

>"They will be made to allow it."

I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.

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

#109

Post by tokai »

LeonB wrote: post #91
tokai wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The Swedes helped the Allies also.

Whats your point? Kiruna, mining, and ww2 is linked with Germany. HN posts are not the place for thorough disseminationof Sweden during ww2, and it is also off topic.

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

#110

Post by kzrdude »

323 wrote: post #73
qwerty456127 wrote: post #62

Isn't rare earth metals mining insanely pollutive? I've heard they can be found all over the world but only China mines them massively because nobody else is willing to destroy their ecology.

One could argue that it's so cold in Sweden there isn't really an ecology there.

It is true that these colder areas have less biodiversity. It feels like a simplified nature, less species to learn to get an overview of what you're likely to find. It's still a long list of course..
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