Mining firm Rare Earths Norway says it has discovered Europe\u2019s largest proven deposit of\u00a0highly prized\u00a0rare earth elements, potentially reflecting a watershed moment for both the Nordic country and the broader region.<\/p>\n
One of the few deposits not owned or controlled by China, the discovery of continental Europe\u2019s largest rare earths deposit is considered a welcome boost in Europe\u2019s bid to break\u00a0China\u2019s rare earths dominance.<\/p>\n
Demand for rare earths and critical minerals is expected to\u00a0grow exponentially\u00a0in the coming years as the\u00a0clean energy transition picks up pace.<\/p>\n
Rare Earths Norway\u00a0said\u00a0in a June 6 statement that its Fen Carbonatite Complex in the southeast of the country boasts 8.8 million metric tons of total rare earth oxides (TREOs) with a reasonable prospect for economic extraction.<\/p>\n
Within the TREOs, which are considered vital to the\u00a0global shift away from fossil fuels, the company says there is an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of magnet-related rare earths which can be used in electric vehicles and wind turbines.<\/p>\n
The discovery eclipses a massive rare earths deposit found last year in neighbouring Sweden.<\/p>\n
Alf Reistad, CEO of Rare Earths Norway, told CNBC that the discovery at Fen represents a \u201cgreat milestone\u201d for the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to state that there is absolutely no extraction of rare earth elements in Europe today,\u201d Reistad said via videoconference Monday.<\/p>\n
One of the aims of the\u00a0Critical Raw Materials Act\u00a0is to extract at least 10% of the European Union\u2019s annual demand for rare earths by 2030 and Rare Earths Norway says it hopes to contribute to that goal.<\/p>\n
Rare Earths Norway said the rare earths deposit in Telemark, roughly 210 kilometers (130 miles) southwest of Oslo, is likely to underscore Norway\u2019s position as an integral part of Europe\u2019s rare earth and critical raw material value chain<\/p>\n
The International Energy Agency has\u00a0said\u00a0that today\u2019s supply falls short of what is needed to transform the energy sector. That\u2019s because there is a relatively high geographical concentration of the production of many energy transition elements.<\/p>\n
Most rare earth elements are located in China, with the world\u2019s second-largest economy\u00a0estimated\u00a0to account for 70% of global rare earth ore extraction and 90% of rare earth ore processing.<\/p>\n
China was the EU\u2019s\u00a0largest partner\u00a0for imports of rare earth elements in 2022, accounting for 40% of overall imports based on weight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mining firm Rare Earths Norway says it has discovered Europe\u2019s largest proven deposit of\u00a0highly prized\u00a0rare earth elements, potentially reflecting a watershed moment for both the Nordic country and the broader region. One of the few deposits not owned or controlled by China, the discovery of continental Europe\u2019s largest rare earths deposit is considered a welcome […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":34549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173,249],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34548"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34556,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34548\/revisions\/34556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}