Mining boom after critical metals: ”Sweden one of the most interesting countries ”Both foreign and Swedish mining projectors flock around the Swedish bedrock. They are interested in the critical metals and minerals that are a must for the green transition. "Rare earth metals have been very common in the applications," says Anders Jakobsson, administrator at Bergsstaten, to Afv.
Martin
Mountain
today 9:47 AM
From 2022 to 2023, the number of applications for survey permits doubled at the Bergsstaten, where Anders Jakobsson is an administrator. Photo: Boliden and press image
Just a few years ago, it looked bad for Sweden's continued existence as a mining nation. When the Canadian think tank Phrases Institute presented its annual comparison index for the mining industry in 2021, Sweden had plummeted from a top ten ranking to number 36 and ended up together with countries that Mali and Ghana.
The number of survey permits to find new deposits to prospect was also down to record lows.
Now the wind has turned.
Today, more and more global mining inspectors are turning their eyes on the Swedish bedrock. What you are looking for is above all the critical metals and minerals that are essential ingredients for the green transition.
It is about metals and minerals with complicated names such as dysprosium, lanthanum, gallium, cobalt, scandium, graphite, yttrium and lithium. But these topics are a must, for example, to build permanent magnets for electric cars, solar panels or the battery parks that are currently growing so that it is cracking throughout Europe.
“Decisive for the green conversion ”
It means that Bergsstaten, which is the authority that handles and approves the study permits, has urgent days. For the past one and a half years, the authority has approved 335 research permits. This is almost as many permits as the Bergs State granted in total between 2019 – 2022.
“In the last two years of applications for exploration permits, battery minerals such as cobalt and lithuim, as well as various rare earth metals, have been very common. What drives demand is the green transition ”, says Anders Jakobsson.
Anders Jakobsson, administrator at Bergsstaten, handles and approves investigative permits. Photo: Bergsstaten
The EU is trying to catch up
China was out early in the hunt for these critical topics. Already 1987 noted Deng Xiaoping, then chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, that ”The Middle East has its oil but China has rare earth metals ”.
Since then, metal and mineral policy have been a crucial part of Chinese growth and today the country controls the majority of both the mining and processing process of these important materials.
At the same time, the EU has been late on the ball.
It was not until May this year that the EU presented its response “Critical Raw Materials Regulation ” which sets out the EU's strategy to break China's dominance and build its own commodity chain. It aims to make EU countries more self-sufficient in the extraction of critical and strategic metals and raw materials.
The process of a new mine
Applying for a research permit is the first step.
The next step is to apply for a so-called processing concession. This means that the applicant is granted exclusive rights to the deposit.
The last part of the process is to apply for and obtain environmental permits to start a mine. That process can take a very long time.
Source: Svemin
Sweden has large deposits
Here's the note Maria Sunér, CEO of the industry organization Svemin, that the Swedish bedrock is particularly interesting.
”Since the Act on Critical Raw Materials came into place in May, there is a very strong focus on Europe having to increase its self-sufficiency. In it, Sweden is one of the more interesting areas in Europe. ”
It is in particular the minerals and metals that the EU considers to be strategically important which arouses the interest of the projectors. Raw materials such as graphite, rare earth metals, lithium silicon consider the EU an absolute must in order to cope with the green future competitiveness.
The first round of applications to become just a strategic project was completed in August and totally applied 170 different projects, which was many more than the Commission expected, points out Maria Sunér.
Maria Sunér, CEO of the trade organization Svemin, notes that Sweden has many deposits with various critical and strategic minerals. Photo: Svemin
”Being a strategic project offers various benefits. There is a stricter limit on how long the permit processes may take and you can also get support in finding financiers. ”
Sweden is trying to hang on. For example, the mining company Talga, owned by the Australian mining giant Talga Group, in the process of starting a graphite mine in Vittangi in Kiruna.
The company has been given a clear sign for its environmental permit by both the first and second bodies. However, both judges have been appealed by Sami villages and the Nature Conservation Association and now the case lies with the Supreme Court. LKAB has also identified a large deposit of rare earth metals in the Kiruna area.
The major threat to the new mining boom is the long state processes, which are also unpredictable and non-transparent, according to the Fraser Institute.
An example of a company that has had to wait a long time is Canadian Leading Edge Materials who began the attempts to start a mine to break earth metals in North Kärr north of Gränna 15 years ago.
Critical and strategic minerals and metals
The EU identifies 34 minerals and metals as critical and / or strategic to society and welfare.
The critical raw materials are determined by their economic importance in relation to the risk of disruptions in the asset. The 16 so-called strategic raw materials are considered particularly important from this aspect.
There are clear global trends that show that both the need and demand for several critical raw materials will increase sharply.
An example is the manufacture of so-called permanent magnets used in wind turbines and in electric vehicles. For this, neodymium (Nd), dysprosium (Dy) and praseodymium (Pr) are needed, which are examples of rare earth metals. Demand for these substances is expected to increase by 250% during the period 2020 – 2030.
In Sweden, there are known occurrences of antimony, fluorspar (fluorite), phosphate mineral, graphite, cobalt, platinum group metals (PGM), rare earth metals (REE), bismuth and tungsten.
Today there are a total of 12 mines in Sweden.
Source: Swedish Geological Survey
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