Sweden’s state mining company has announced the discovery of the largest deposit of rare earth metals ever found in Europe, raising hopes that the continent could reduce its dependence on China.
Mining company LKAB announced on Thursday that it had found at least a million tonnes of rare earth oxides in the Kiruna region in the far north of the country.
Couple of people have sent this to me. For which thanks. Looks like it’s apatite. Associated with iron ore, fluorite and so on, sounds about right. Also, v similar – I think – to what the Chinese mine at that vast place at Baotou.
That’s already making assumptions. I’d go further in assuming that it will be high in the light REs, light in the heavies. So, lots of La and Ce, things already in oversupply, light in the Tb and Dy everyone really wants. Nd/Pr could be in any sort of range.
The big test here will be what is that Nd/Pr content though. Assume that they mine, get a RE concentrate. Great. If that’s less than – about, aroundanda – 10% Nd/Pr then the entire deposit is valueless. Simply because of the costs and revenues of the processing. More than 20% and at current prices and processes then it’s great.
Note that I’m making gargantuan assumptions from a quick reading of a not very informative press release. That price and concentration point is more generally true tho’, applies to any deposit these days.
Deposits (pegmatite) in Ireland as well; https://www.mining.com/arkle-resources-finds-lithium-in-ireland/
Firm’s listed on AIM. 21% jump, settled 2% lower. £2m market cap.
Sweden’s the go-to place for “rare” earths, at one point half of all discovered rare earth elements were named after just one village in Sweden.
‘https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/12/brisbane-e-scooter-fire-leaves-five-in-hospital-with-burns-and-smoke-inhalation’
You’ll have noted that the Guardian reference doesn’t mention that it was a lithium battery.
https://lkab.com/en/press/europes-largest-deposit-of-rare-earth-metals-is-located-in-the-kiruna-area/
Yup…Apatite, and it looks like a significant amount of phosphor, and very significant iron deposits.
They still have to do a full survey, but looks like they’re going to mine it for the Iron and phosphor anyway.
Looks like they’re well aware mining the stuff for the rare earth elements may well not be profitable enough on its own, but… They’re already hammering the whole “Independence from China” and “EU critical resources” bit in the press release.
Hard to say how economically feasible piggybacking the extraction process on the primary Fe/P production process is, though.
Wait until little Greta realises this means mining (& storing/selling/dumping)radioactive thorium in her home country.
Green technology good, until it isn’t. Back to burning all the trees & whales then.
Maybe the independence from China stuff is just to shake loose some funding for the setup costs so they can make a profit once it’s operational
RE concentrate piggy back? V. simple. Creation of something valuable? Ahh…..