Sweden discovers large deposits of rare earth metals in the Arctic area
A Swedish mining company reported earlier this month that it has discovered a large deposit of rare earth metals in the far north of the country.
Rare earths are a series of 17 minerals that are commonly found together and are used in most high-tech electronics, military systems and batteries. Although they are distributed throughout the world, they are difficult to find in sufficient concentrations to be economical to extract.
The deposit was found by Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag (LKAB), a state-owned mining company that operates two large iron mines in the far north of the country, just inside the Arctic Circle. The find was made at LKAB’s Kiruna mine, which is located approximately 130 kilometers from the Finnish border and 300 kilometers from the Russian border.
Like many critical minerals, rare earths are found in relatively lower amounts, often near or interspersed with other, more common metals, such as copper or iron. In this case, the minerals were found interspersed with phosphorus in an iron oxide apatite deposit a few kilometers from the Kiruna mine.
The discovery was heralded in the mainstream press across Europe and the US as a significant geopolitical development that would wrest control of the rare earth supply chain away from China.
NPR’s Paddy Hirsch described it as “a very big deal for the West.” He continued, “We’ve seen over the last 10 years that the US in particular has been very, very concerned about the fact that China has such a lock on rare earth production. … So this finding in Sweden is a very big deal for the West and for Western nations and NATO…”
According to International Energy Agency (IEA), about 60 percent of the world’s rare earths come from China. The vast majority of it – more than a third of the world’s total production – comes from a single location, the Bayan Odo deposit in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China.
The United States is the second largest producer of rare earths, accounting for a little more than 10 percent of the supply.
The new finds in Sweden – in a global context – are less impressive than the media fanfare suggests. LKAB says they found approximately 1 million tons of rare earth oxides. But there are already around 120 million tonnes of reserves globally. Forty-four of these tonnes are in China, with Vietnam, Brazil and Russia in second place with around 20 million tonnes each.
However, reserve estimates can be misleading. Reserves are not only educated guesses about a complex geological formation buried underground, but they also do not account for how easy the reserves are to produce.
In a press conference announcing the find, LKAB CEO Jan Mostrom explained: “We actually don’t know how big it is. We actually do not know how, in what way we can use, develop this project. But what we can say today, with what we know today is that it is by far the largest deposit of REE [Rare Earth Elements] in Europe.”
Currently, there are no large-scale mines in the European Union (EU), and only a relatively small rare earth processor in Estonia. China, on the other hand, controls nearly 90 percent of rare earth processing globally.
The main significance of the LKAB find is that it can create an opportunity for the EU to develop a supply chain for rare earth metals within its own borders. This could both enable European manufacturers to challenge their global competitors in fast-growing markets, such as electric vehicle production, and enable the continent’s major imperial powers to supply modern weapons to their militaries without relying on materials from potential rivals.
As the World Socialist Web Site has previously explained, Russia is also a major holder of rare earths and critical minerals more generally. Both the Biden and Trump administrations have launched major multibillion-dollar initiatives to develop these critical mineral resources under the control of the United States and its allies.
While the geographic differences in rare earth production and processing are partly the result of geology, it has more to do with the globalization of production and the transformation of China into the sweatshop of the world.
China’s emergence as a central hub for electronics and industrial manufacturing has made it relatively convenient from the point of view of globally mobile companies to locate mineral processing there. It has the cheap labor and land. China’s factories are also often the destination for these processed minerals.
In addition, the mining and processing of rare earth ores and other critical minerals is a toxic process that leaves long-term damage to the environment. The big international companies have until recently been content to let this dirty process take place elsewhere.
The actual development of the Swedish mine will take between 10 and 15 years before production can begin.
LKAB has announced plans to become a major processor, not only of rare earths, but of all sorts of critical minerals. It recently bought the Norwegian company REEtec, which specializes in more environmentally friendly forms of rare earth processing.
As David Hognelid, LKAB’s head of strategy, said New York Times, “We want the entire value chain.” LKAB is currently planning an industrial park that will develop these processing capabilities in northern Sweden.
The location of significant amounts of rare earth metals, oil and natural gas in the Arctic region is one reason why the High North is increasingly subject to intense conflicts between major and regional powers. Eight countries, including the United States, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden, have territorial claims in the Arctic, with some of them contested. As the sea ice melts, the ability to secure control of these key resources, as well as newly opened sea lanes for trade routes, has encouraged an increase in military activity in the region.
LKAB’s discovery of rare earth metals occurs during a massive escalation of the war between NATO and Russia in Ukraine. Last week, the United States announced that it would send M1 Abrams tanks, widely considered the most advanced battle tanks in the world, to Ukrainian troops.
US imperialism and its European allies are bent on defeating and carving up Russia in order to take control of the vast amounts of natural resources that lie beneath the country’s landmass. These include rare earths and large amounts of oil and natural gas.
In this regard, the US sees the war as a stepping stone into a much deadlier conflict with China. American war strategists are actively preparing and planning this war, largely behind the backs of the population. Securing access to critical minerals such as rare earths is seen as an important form of preparedness, given their strategic importance and China’s dominance of the global market.