(This article is also available in German)
Fuel cells, hydrogen production and, last but not least, the magnets in electric cars: rare earths are closely linked to future technologies. For Europe, however, their dismantling is largely associated with dependencies on other nations. The most recent discovery of rare earths in northern Sweden seems all the more promising. In a deposit called Per Geijer near Kiruna, the Swedish state mining company LKAB had found the largest deposit of rare earths in Europe to date – more than a million tons. Already at the beginning of January, LKAB had announced that it would invest one billion euros in the extraction of rare earths and phosphorus from the overburden of ore mining in Lapland, which had accumulated over 130 years. How is the find rated? And: Does the deposit have the potential to defuse Europe’s dependencies? The economic geologist Harald Elsner from the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources in Hanover classifies.
Mr. Elsner, what’s going on in the far north of Europe?
Iron ore has been mined near Kiruna for over 130 years, which occurs there together with phosphates in the form of the mineral apatite. Rare earths can also be found in this apatite. Of course, this has not only been known since this year, but for decades. LKAB has had a research project with the University of Luleå for a long time to investigate how this phosphate mineral apatite can be separated from iron ore and then try to separate the rare earths from these phosphate mineral concentrates.
Why did LKAB only announce this now?
Now the new Swedish EU Council Presidency and the Council Commission meeting in Kiruna have been used to announce this news about the reserves in one of many deposits of iron ore in northern Sweden as a hit in the world.
From top: Where the rare earth site is located in Kiruna.
Are there ways to extract the rare earths in Kiruna as well?
LKAB has acquired a stake in the Norwegian company REEtec, which is now initially building a pilot plant to extract the rare earths. But first you take ore from Canada from a mine that – as far as we know – doesn’t even exist yet. From this they want to initially produce 720 tons of rare earth oxides, at least 5 percent of European demand. From 2027 they want to devote themselves to the material from Kiruna.
Why not take the ore from Per Geijer right away?
The deposit is only once drilled. It will take at least another ten to 15 years before it has been explored in detail, a permit has been granted and a shaft has been dug. And then a plant for the extraction of the rare earths still has to be built, which also takes four to five years before it works without any problems.
So is this of no use for the time being for the energy transition in Europe, where rare earths are urgently needed?
That has nothing to do with it at all. We have two dozen of this kind in the world. The closest ones are in Greenland, where we have two large deposits, one with almost 5 million tons and the other with 6.5 million tons of rare earth oxides. There are also the heavy rare earths, of which dysprosium is particularly important for the energy transition. The Greenland deposits are already well explored and there are already processing plans. What’s missing is the investment, and it’s about $1 billion per well.
How big are the global reserves of rare earths?
The global reserves, i.e. what can currently be mined and mined, last about 170 years. The range of the resources, i.e. what is suspected or where one still has to explore, has now increased from 2,042 to 2,049 years due to the enormous find at Kiruna. So when we talk about rare earths, we are talking about the raw materials in the world with the largest reserves that are known.
From below: Insight into exactly where the deposit is located.
Are there rare earth deposits in Germany and in Europe, apart from Greenland? If so, why aren’t they mined?
Yes, there is an occurrence in Germany, in Storkwitz near Delitzsch in northern Saxony. It is one of the smallest known deposits in the world, which explains why it is not mined. It doesn’t pay off. There are other deposits in Europe in Turkey, Portugal, Greece and above all in Norway, Sweden, Finland and, as I said, in Greenland.
What would be necessary to use these deposits?
That is precisely one of the problems, along with the high investment costs. There is a long value chain involved. It starts when you get the ore out of the ground. Then the rare earth minerals have to be separated and processed, with all accompanying heavy metals usually being of no interest. Uranium and thorium are even a problem.
Then you get a mixed rare earth concentrate that contains all 16 of these elements that need to be separated from each other. The separation of the heavy rare earths is particularly difficult and only possible in China, which is the only country with this know-how. The subsequent enrichment to high-purity elements is also only mastered by the Chinese with very few exceptions – and these only concern the light rare earths. Only then can they be alloyed and then used in the form of permanent magnets in components, for example in the electronics industry. From ore mining to the finished product, the rare earths are also transported across national borders several times.
So the Swedes would have to send their ore to China first?
You are trying to set up your own plant in Sweden or Norway to separate, separate and enrich the light rare earths there. Any heavy metals that are still there must in fact be sent to China. Such systems are highly complex and only designed for a single mineral. At present there is no plant in the world that separates the rare earths from the phosphate ore, which can come from Sweden. That means you start from scratch there.
Then it will probably take longer than 15 years until rare earths come from northern Sweden?
Yes. Harnessing the rare earth content from this deposit in Europe will take 20 to 30 years. If there were such a plant in Sweden, production could already be in progress, because iron ore mining has been producing this material for 130 years.
The past few months have painfully demonstrated that dependence on resources comes at a high price. But can the wheel still be turned back? So let’s take a look at the supply situation. To what extent Europe could supply itself with strategically important raw materials and what that means for industry, we want to explore with a raw materials article series.
(jle)
