Swedish company finds Europe's largest 'rare earth' deposit, to cut dependence on China

Swedish mining company LKAB said Thursday (January 12) that they have discovered Europe's largest known deposit of rare earth elements. The mining company noted that the earth elements are essential for the manufacturing of electric vehicles.The discovery is deemed a massive boost as it is expected to cut dependence on China. The mining group said that the deposit was right next to its iron ore mine, and it contained more than one million tonnes of rare earth oxides.

In a statement, LKAB's chief executive, Jan Mostrom said: "This is the largest known deposit of rare earth elements in our part of the world."

Mostrom further mentioned in the statement that the "rare earth" could become a significant building block for producing the "critical raw materials" that are absolutely crucial to enable the green transition.

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The definition of "rare earth" is—any of a group of chemically similar metallic elements comprising 17 metals: scandium, yttrium, and the fifteen lanthanides. Despite the name, they are not especially rare, but they tend to occur together in nature and are difficult to separate from one another.

Mostrom added that "we face a supply problem. Without mines, there can be no electric vehicles". But the use of "rare earth" in batteries is the subject of much debate.

But will it really help in reducing the dependence on China? Maybe not. The European Commission said in 2021 that 98 per cent of the "rare earth" used in the EU were imported from China. Brussels then urged member states to develop their extraction capacities.

The recent find in Europe is said to be the biggest in Europe. But it remains small on a global scale. Overall, it represents less than one per cent of the 120 million tonnes estimated worldwide by the US Geological Survey.

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