Sweden, a country rich in strategic materials where projects are slow to come to fruition

When geologists began to see faults around Kiruna, north of the polar circle, raising fears that the ground was collapsing under the feet of its 18,000 inhabitants, a choice had to be made: to close the largest underground iron mine in the world. world, or move the city. It was the option of moving that was chosen in 2004. A titanic project, requiring the relocation of a third of the population of Kiruna, and for which the public company Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag (LKAB), which has been operating the mine since 1898 , has already paid out 18.4 billion crowns (1.6 billion euros) and set aside 10.5 billion crowns.

These figures give the measure of what the mine represents for the Scandinavian country, especially since LKAB is counting on iron ore production until 2060. And that’s not all: faced with the growing demand for certain metals strategic, essential to the ecological transition, LKAB has decided to reprocess its mining waste to extract phosphorus as well as rare earths (neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium), which could cover up to 30% of European needs, according to the company .

Large as metropolitan France, Sweden is one of the largest metal producers in Europe. In 2020, 93% of the iron ore produced in the European Union came out of its mines, as well as 32.8% of lead, 34.4% of zinc, around 18% of gold and silver and 10.7% copper. The Scandinavian kingdom is also “one of the world leaders in mining equipment with companies like Sandvik or Epiroc”says Magnus Ericsson, professor at Lulea University of Technology.

” High potential “

So many factors that should give it a head start, like its Finnish neighbour, in the race for critical raw materials. In 2020, the Swedish Geological Survey (SGU) published a report, together with its Nordic counterparts, taking stock of the state of the reserves identified in the region. Assessment: “We have a bedrock with high potential for mines like those that already exist, but also for the extraction of strategic materials”says Erika Ingvald, director of information on minerals and the mining industry at the SGU.

Currently, twelve mines are in operation in Sweden – compared to a hundred in the 1950s. While none currently produces rare earths or strategic materials such as lithium, cobalt or graphite, prospecting activities are increasing, after a slump over the past ten years, caused in particular by the fall in metal prices. In 2021, 585 exploration permits had been issued by the mines inspectorate.

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