Rare Earth Metals in Sweden
- Thread starter buster
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Just a little prediction; The EU will never allow for MINING to occur.
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The rare earth materials are not rare. Mining them can be toxic to the environment hence it's not done in the EU or the US. It's cheaper to buy these then to comply with the environmental regulations. It helps to make a little bit of a noise about the Chinese suppliers and raise your prices a little without being questioned.
Greta was just arrested at a coal mining protest, so get digging.
I'm an independent consulting geologist with most of my clients all looking to develop REE deposits/projects - I conduct exploration and provide "Competent Person" services for several "critical minerals" including titanium-bearing industrial minerals (ilmenite/leucoxene/rutile), zircon, and other industrial heavy minerals. REEs are the hot one now so the minerals monazite and xenotime in the mineral sands space are hot (both figuratively and literally...U and Th!). But I also look at other styles of REE mineralization. I've been all over the world looking at it/for it. The whole thing is...the minerals themselves are not all that rare. We have plenty of domestic supply of the minerals here in the states, however, the U.S. doesn't posses (at an industrial scale) the means to convert the minerals to the "multi-colored REO [rare earth oxide] powders" (as I call them) to actually use for anything. It will take investment by the federal gov. to offset the risk posed by a business trying to enter that market against China as they can simply drop the price overnight and put anyone they want out of business trying to get into the market. China dominates it and provides ~95% (or close) of the world's REEs. There are some huge deposits that are being looked at to bring online (not in U.S.) but this all really far out in terms of production. I wouldn't hold my breath to see Sweden bring any REE deposits into production.
The mining isn't toxic at all - extraction from the Earth isn't the issue. Processing the raw ore/minerals to extract the REEs can be and yes, China has much more lax environmental controls in place so this is all quite a bit easier for them. It's not the environmental regs that are hard to comply with...it's simply the overall CAPEX of the processing facility that would be necessary to produce the REEs at an economic scale.
Fake virtue is the rage now. She and the other guy look quite happy just moments before the “arrest”
Does anyone remember this?
It, looked like this in reality.
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Thanks for the clarification.
One other comment, depending on the host ore that is being mined/processed, you can have NORM (naturally ocurring radioactive material) issues due to Uranium/Thorium.
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Well, they aren't rare but making the oxide powders is v. cost-intensive...the markets sets the price accordingly.
This whole thing was staged. See behind scenes video
The real cost comes in separation of the elements. They all have nearly identical electron configurations in their outer shells.
Correct - the processing to the "17 colored powders" as I call them is where the cost is and why the U.S. isn't in this game yet...we have no multi-billion dollar processing facility for it. The minerals/deposits....no worries...plenty of them.
LKAB are mining in Kiruna, and its not a little mining company
Why do protestors and police have to be mad or violent with each other? A peaceful protest can end with peaceful arrest, with a moment for photo with someone famous.
I don't agree with all the crazy ideas to "save the planet", but I still think its a good idea to try not to wreck the place in a century or two, so I do agree with Greta on that point...
Seems a bit short sighted by the US/Canada, I guess China is less likely to shoot itself in the foot than Russia was, but they still aren't a "friendly" or reliable trading partner.
It's an on-going thing and at some point, the U.S. will be producing these here.
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