Jakarta –
Swedish mining company LKAB discovered rare earth metal reserves or rare earth in his country. If it is successfully mined later, then it can help later Europe release dependence on China.
LKAB said it had identified significant deposits in Lapland of rare earths essential for manufacturing mobile phones, electric vehicles, weapons and wind turbines. The state-owned company said there were more than 1 million tons of traceable rare earth oxides.
According to the cited LKAB detikINET from Fox News, the find is Europe’s largest deposit of rare earths. But they warn it will be at least a decade before mining begins.
Rare earth metals are present in many important things, from hard drives to elevators and trains and are essential for rapidly growing green energy, including in wind turbines and electric car engines.
But the EU is heavily dependent on China, getting around 98% of the mineral rare earth from China, and none of it is mined in Europe. Yet according to the European Commission, demand will increase 5 times by 2030.
The EU’s ambition to be the first climate neutral continent is at risk without safe and sustainable access to raw materials. Well, the discovery of a large deposit of rare earths in Sweden is certainly good news.
However, there are indeed mining difficulties even though permits are granted quickly. “If you look at how other permits are processed in our industry, it will take at least 10-15 years before we can actually start mining and sending raw materials to the market,” said LKAB CEO Jan Mostrom.
“We have to change the licensing process to ensure increased mining of this type of raw material in Europe,” he added.
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