Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional festivals - Sweden has discovered the largest rare earth deposit in Europe. Can the EU achieve self-sufficiency in rare earths?

Sweden has discovered the largest rare earth deposit in Europe. Can the EU achieve self-sufficiency in rare earths?

Sweden discovered the largest rare earth deposit in Europe near the Arctic Circle.

Local time 12, the Swedish state-owned mining company LKAB announced the above news, saying that this deposit named PerGeijer is located in Lapland, Sweden, north of the Arctic Circle, and contains more than 6,543,800 tons of rare earth oxides, making it the largest known deposit of its kind in Europe.

However, Morstrom, CEO of LKAB, said that it will take several years to determine the specific content of the deposit. "We are conducting exploration activities in this deposit. For us, this means that it is open, not closed-(but) we don't actually know how big it is." He added at the press conference.

Morstrom said that it will take 65,438+00 to 65,438+05 years to put raw materials on the market, but if the licensing procedures in Sweden and the European Union can be accelerated, this time can be shortened by more than 50%. The company plans to submit an application for mining concession this year.

At present, the EU has put increasing the self-sufficiency rate of raw materials on the top agenda to reduce its dependence on foreign bulk products and strengthen its ambition to promote green technologies in the EU, including wind energy and automobile batteries.

A veteran who has been managing environmental protection projects in international organizations for a long time told the First Financial Reporter that he personally thought it would be a long process from the present stage to the mine approval, and the time estimate from 10 to 15 was a bit optimistic. "The economic value of the deposit is not necessarily high. China has a certain voice in the rare earth market and does not necessarily have any market advantages, especially in northern Europe where labor costs are extremely high. Mining the mine is more likely from the perspective of geopolitics, industry and national security. For this deposit, the demand of the EU is greater than Sweden itself. " He said.

The road to the mine is very long.

Due to electrification, it is expected that the demand for rare earths in Europe will increase greatly. According to the assessment of the European Commission, by 2030, the demand for rare earth elements such as electric vehicles and wind turbines is expected to increase by more than five times, but the way to obtain rare earth elements in Europe mainly depends on imports.

According to the data of US Geological Survey (USGS), in 20021year, the world's rare earth reserves were1.200 million tons, and the reserves were highly concentrated, of which about 86.4% were concentrated in China, Viet Nam, Brazil, Russia, India, Australia, the United States and Greenland.

After the discovery of the mine, Ebba Babus, Swedish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry, said that the EU's rare earth self-sufficiency would start from this mine, and it was necessary to strengthen the industrial value chain in Europe and create real opportunities for European electrification. In this regard, the Swedish mining industry has made great achievements.

However, the mining road of this deposit may be very long. The first step is to apply for the mining concession of PerGeijer deposit in order to further investigate the mining conditions. As mentioned earlier, LKAB's plan is to be able to submit a mining concession application in 2023.

At present, LKAB has begun to prepare to open a roadway about 700 meters deep leading to the new deposit in the existing Kiruna mining area for in-depth and detailed investigation.

The company revealed that it had not seen the full range of deposits.

"We have invested a lot of money to promote it, and we expect that it will take several years to investigate the conditions of mineral deposits and sustainable mining. We still lack understanding of the impact of land use and its development into mines. " Morstrom said that LKAB has been mining ore in Kiruna mine for over 130 years.

"The European Commission pays close attention to this issue to ensure access to key materials." He revealed that the European Commission is currently studying the European Key Raw Materials Act.

"We must change the licensing procedures to ensure that we increase the exploitation of these raw materials in Europe. Today, access to raw materials is a key risk factor for European industrial competitiveness and climate change. " Morstrom highlighted the regulatory challenges. "If we really want to pursue green transformation, we must find ways to greatly accelerate this process." .

Can you speed up?

The European Commission is planning to introduce the European Key Raw Materials Act to reduce the regulatory barriers to the mining and production of key materials, such as lithium, cobalt and graphite used in wind farms, solar panels and electric vehicles.

On September 14 local time, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the "European Key Raw Materials Act" in his State of the Union address, seeking to ensure the supply security of lithium, rare earth and other minerals. The EU will determine the potential strategic projects in the power battery supply chain through legislation, and establish reserves where the supply is risky to ensure the autonomy and controllability of the battery supply chain.

Earlier, the European Raw Materials Union (ERMA) also proposed that the EU should invest 200 million euros every year to increase the regional output of special rare earth permanent magnets. ERMA predicts that by 2030, the output of rare earth permanent magnets in the EU will reach one-fifth of the regional demand. Rare earth is the key material for producing electric vehicle motors and wind turbines. It is reported that relevant enterprises have submitted 14 proposed projects to ERMA, with a value of1700 million euros, which will increase the output of permanent magnets in the EU from the current 500 tons to 7,000 tons in 2030.

Since the United States introduced a total of $369 billion inflation reduction bill, the work of the European Union has become more urgent.

However, the above-mentioned senior people explained to reporters that the existing deep processing capacity of rare earths is mainly in China, and the processing industry in the west has further pushed up the price of products, making products lose their market advantage.

At the same time, we should also consider the environmental protection policies of Sweden and the European Union. He explained that it remains to be seen whether radical environmentalists in Sweden will allow the development of rare earth mines. There is a famous environmentalist in Sweden, Swedish girl Greta, and there are also indigenous factors. The assessment of its environmental and social impact will be a long process, which will be mixed with climate change and complicate the event.

In practice, due to regulatory obstacles, some member States doubt to what extent the EU can reduce its dependence on imported raw materials and refined materials, so they emphasize the need to insist on signing free trade agreements with mineral-rich continents such as South America.

EU Trade Commissioner ValdisDombrovskis emphasized the necessity of expanding the network of EU free trade agreements, and pointed out that Chile has a large amount of lithium stocks. In addition, the EU also hopes to reach an agreement with Australia, another big raw material country, before next summer.

It is worth pointing out that on the occasion of the publication of the LKAB Statement and Sweden's six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, the European Commission visited Kiruna and held a two-day summit. The town is famous for its overall relocation to adapt to the development of LKAB coal mine. On June 65438+1 October1day, 2023, Sweden took over the rotating presidency of the European Council, and its work will focus on security, competitiveness, green and energy transformation.

The Swedish side said that the European economy was seriously affected by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict; Rising inflation, interest rates and energy prices have put enterprises and citizens in trouble. Although decisive actions have been taken, the EU must firmly transform into a green economy and consolidate the foundation of the long-term growth economic model.

It is reported that Sweden, as the presidency, plans to actively promote and strengthen transatlantic cooperation with the United States, including cooperation between the EU and NATO, as well as cooperation with Britain, Canada and Latin America.

Sweden intends to continue its efforts to implement the global gateway strategy to strengthen global connectivity.