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    Rare Earths Norway says estimate of deposit, biggest in Europe, jumps 81%
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    Rare Earths Norway says estimate of deposit, biggest in Europe, jumps 81%

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    33 Comments

    1. veevoir on

      Norway is playing the game with it’s economy/resources set on “easy” it seems. First oil and gas, now this.

    3. Doc_Bader on

      Quoting an old post of mine because it’s interesting in this context:

      —

      **What’s happening in Europe in regards to rare earths right now:**

      • A new rare earth facility from company Caremag, located in Lacq France, is going operational in **2026**. It’s going to supply up to 15% of global demand for heavy rare earths. ([source](https://www.carester.fr/en/caremag-launch/))

      • Another facility that most people aren’t aware of is the Solvay plant in La Rochelle in France. Solvay expanded it in **April 2025** and it’s actually the **largest refinery outside of China** that can separate **all rare earth metals**. ([article](https://www.solvay.com/en/press-release/solvay-advances-european-rare-earths-production-through-capacity-expansion))

      • Also, **September 2025**, a Canadian company (with the help of EU-funds) opened a brand new rare-earth magnet factory in Estonia which can supply a huge amount of magnets to the EU. Up until then 90% of these magnets came from China. ([article](https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/09/15/in-estonia-a-new-rare-earth-magnet-plant-powers-europes-green-transition))

      • Also a very important thing which might have flown under the radar: Two years ago in **April 2024** the EU already enacted the so called **“Critical Raw Materials Act”** which aims to make the EU less dependent on imports in regards to rare earths, it also sets benchmarks **until 2030** ([article](https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/raw-materials/areas-specific-interest/critical-raw-materials/critical-raw-materials-act_en)), all of the projects above fall under this Act and are partly funded through it.

      • There’s also a map which shows so called **”Selected Strategic Projects”** which are subsidised under this Act. Here is a list of projects which are already under construction, you can browse it here to get a full overview: [Selected strategic projects](https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/raw-materials/areas-specific-interest/critical-raw-materials/strategic-projects-under-crma/selected-projects_en)

      • There was a **second round of subsidies** just recently under the “Selected strategic projects” – program. Winners are going to be announced **Mid 2026**. ([source](https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/raw-materials/areas-specific-interest/critical-raw-materials/strategic-projects-under-crma_en))

    5. ArtisticTraffic5970 on

      I’m Norwegian, and I got into geology and mineral collecting a couple of years ago, and rare earths are *everywhere*, as are most metals and a staggering amount of heavy metals and rare minerals. There’s uranium and thorium everywhere. It’s quite fascinating.

    6. Borealisss on

      Too bad we’re never going to get to actually dig them up, cause mining is so “dirty”

      Any plan to extract minerals gets attacked by activist groups and the greens before it can even get a word in.

    7. Beyllionaire on

      Lord stop giving Norway all the precious natural resources of Europe, they’re already filthy rich 😩

    8. Bicentennial_Douche on

      Everyone: “The world needs oil, and lots of it!”
      Norway: “We just happen to have tons of the stuff, lucky us!”
      Everyone: “OK, we kinda want to get away from oil, what we need now is rare Earth metals!”
      Norway: “well, funny you should say that…”

    10. potatolulz on

      *”USA now needs Norway for national security. Norway didn’t treat Norwegians very nice and it doesn’t matter that the Norwegians landed their boats in Norway because we have bigger boats, so we’re sending hospital ship and JD to help”*

      -Donald Jonald Trump, King of the USA, colorized

    12. wynnduffyisking on

      I blame Napoleon for Norway getting away from us. Denmark could have been rich to the tits.

    15. WolfetoneRebel on

      Here’s a question – is Norway just luckily blessed with all the natural resources, or are they just better at finding and exploiting their natural resources. I mean, it just doesn’t seem normal that Ireland is so bereft of natural resources despite somewhat similar geography, Atlantic coastline, etc…

    16. wil3k on

      I don’t want to crash the party, but most “rare minerals” aren’t that “rare”. The problem is that refining them is expensive and dirty… and in many cases China has built a monopoly on these processes.

    18. 3dvard_1 on

      Rare earths aren’t really rare. Having them is not that special but the refining process is often very polluting and energy intensive. Considering that Europa does not have that industry plus environmental regulations, it’s very unlikely that this will happen in a bigger scale. Not to mention that it will be nowhere near profitable.

    20. kakoni on

      In Finland we also got these rare minerals. We always sell the mining rights to foreign private equity based companies. Also our mining royalties are way lower (2.5%) compared to for instance DR Congo (3.5%-10%)

    22. ninjagorilla on

      There is an article like this every months, “rare earths” as a category aren’t that rare. The problem globally is China has a stranglehold on refining capacity for these resources. So you can have as many as you want but if you can’t refine them it’s not gonna help

    23. asdafari14 on

      Problemet är inte tillgången, utan att inga länder vill förstöra miljön så pass mycket och svårt att konkurrera med Kina som har svaga miljöregler och lång kompetens kring utbrytning och förädling som vi saknar. Vi skulle göra det 2-10 ggr dyrare och enda sättet att det är ekonomiskt hållbart vore om EU stöttar med enorma summor eller förbjuder från att köpa från Kina (inte troligt).

      > Europe has no operating rare earth mines

      Låt oss ta över en marknad som vi inte har någon kompetens i, hur svårt ska det vara? 5 år senare, ups 100 miljarder borta och företaget i konkurs. Folk vet inte men det finns inte mycket pengar i utbrytningen av REs. Det är nästan en minusaffär. Det är i förädlingen man tjänar pengar och den är Kina experter på.

    24. pseudopad on

      It’s a bigger problem to extract them than to find them. And an even bigger problem to extract them economically, when China can do it for so cheap that they can run other businesses into the ground by dumping prices for a few years, then turning them back up once the competition’s gone.

    25. Fearless_Law647 on

      Rare earth materials are primarily obtained as a residual from refining other metals. Just mining rare earth is technically possible but not commercially viable. China has a lot of metal processing capacity and as a side effect they produce rare earth.

    26. ptok_ on

      Rare earths are not oil or natural gas. Their extraction is not hugely profitable and pollution heavy. That’s why it major asset for China as investments in that field probably would not be profitable and will have to be subsidized.

    29. beseri on

      I have a hard time imaging we will destroy our nature to extract the resources. Unless they find a environmental friendly way of extracting it, I would not hold my breath that we would replace China or other producers.

    31. Significant-Fig2485 on

      They will be on trump and putins list now ,, may need to be defended by an invading foreign nation with loads of aircraft carriers ???
      European army needed QUICK

    32. mattiasso on

      Nobody is looking for more rare earths… we just need somebody else than China taking it out and processing it