Massive Swedish mine could take the future of the rare-earths industry back from China
https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/rare-earths-china-zhbhh6v66
Massive Swedish mine could take the future of the rare-earths industry back from China
https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/rare-earths-china-zhbhh6v66
7 Comments
> Rare earths power our world and overwhelmingly come from a single country. If Europe can break Beijing’s stranglehold, it probably starts here.
> The **Per Geijer deposit is thought to be Europe’s most promising cache of rare earth metals, near the Kiruna mine in the Arctic north of Sweden.**
> In April, China responded to American tariff threats by suspending its exports of seven rare earth metals, along with nine other strategic minerals. They can now only be bought under licenses, which may be withdrawn at any time. The Chinese rare earth monopolies have turned out to be chokepoints that can be squeezed at will. “China built up this position very systematically, and from the western world’s perspective it was pure negligence and lack of industrial strategy to let it happen”.
> Now the question is whether it is still possible for Europe to break free of this dependency with its own production. For this, according to the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, three things are needed: The first is an economically viable rare earths deposit. Then comes the technical expertise required to disentangle the metals from the ore. Finally, the toxic by-products of these processes have to be safely stored.
> A glance at China indicates why this is so difficult. The country’s dominance is built on the Bayan Obo mine in Inner Mongolia, **which was discovered nearly a century ago and was once estimated to contain 70 percent of the world’s known rare earths.**
> Experts say that in theory Europe could surmount all of these problems. **In recent years a number of large and high-grade rare earth deposits have been identified across the Nordic countries**, including the Fen complex in Norway, Norra Karr in southern Sweden, and Sokli in Finnish Lapland.
The existence of reserves has never been the issue. It’s the refining process that China has a monopoly over. They even import rare earth ore mined elsewhere because they are the only ones willing to deal with the pollution from the refining process
Basically, without a commitment to building refineries this is a complete nothingburger
Cool!
Do it Sweden! Do it!
(I type this to you as my keyboard lies on top of a rather simplistic yet beautifully designed physical wooden desktop I bought from a certain Swedish company!)
So ya… As we all know by now, or should: talk is cheap. Promises are cheap.
And this still seems to be in the talk/promise phase of things.
But, still I’m holding out hope for this and I REALLY REALLY want to see Sweden move beyond the talk, and do this for real!
#DO IT SWEDEN!
so thats JD Vances next ‘holiday’ destination sorted then . . .
Not really sure how that helps with the issue of processing..
Rare earth minerals aren’t rare. It’s the refining and processing that the Chinese control and this is because no one else wanted to put up with the environmental issues and getting no return. The rest of the world has been short sighted on a lot of heavy industries and their national security importance.
What if we build a space elevator and refine it in space?