Swedish government-owned mining company LKAB has reported the largest deposit of rare earth metals ever discovered in Europe. This is over 1 million tons of rare earth oxides and is invaluable in the race towards decarbonisation.
LKAB is racing to investigate a discovery known as the Per Geijer deposit, which was discovered adjacent to the company’s Kiruna mine in Lapland.
There is currently zero rare earth mining in Europe. The industry is now completely dominated by China, which produces about 61% of the world’s rare earth supply, according to mining technology, while the United States is in second place with just 15% of the market.
There are 17 rare earth elements, valued for their excellent magnetism and electrical conductivity, but the most important at the moment is neodymium, which is alloyed with boron and iron to form the world’s strongest permanent magnets. The demand for these magnets is increasing as the world moves away from fossil fuels. They are widely used in electric motors.
Neodymium and other rare earth elements are essential in a variety of technology products such as smartphones, solar panels, wind turbines and monitors. Mining Technology estimates that every EV battery uses about 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rare earths and every wind turbine uses about 600 kg (1,323 pounds) of rare earths.
As with lithium, demand for these elements is projected to skyrocket in the coming decades, with China taking the lead to dominate the market.
Rukab
A discovery of more than 1 million tonnes is the largest in European history, and LKAB hopes to start tapping it as soon as possible.
To put the discoveries into perspective, the world’s largest known rare earth deposit is the Bayan Obo deposit in Inner Mongolia in northern China. It has been in production since 1957 and has reserves of about 40 million tons.
“This is good news not only for LKAB, the region and the people of Sweden, but also for Europe and the climate,” said Jan Moström, President and Group CEO of LKAB. And it can be a key building block for the production of critical raw materials that are absolutely essential to enable the transition to the environment. Without landmines, there would be no electric vehicles. “
Source: LKAB
