Why Sweden Is Digging Europe's Largest Hole
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- Опубликовано: 10 ноя 2023
- Why Sweden Is Digging Europe's Largest Hole
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Video Producers:
Oliver Franke
Charles Street
Research & Writing:
Omar Garcia, Oliver Franke
Edit & Animations:
Oliver Franke
Sources:
docs.google.com/document/d/1O...
Little nitpick: Denmark is displayed as non EU on your map, whereas it of course is a member.
also luxembourg
Quite the oversight for a channel that claims to be from Denmark.
I'll let you in on a secret.
RUclipsrs sometimes deliberately include mistakes in their videos to get more engagement as people rush to correct them. This time I chose to exclude a few countries from the EU map. Which includes my own, something that can't really happen by mistake ;)
@@OBFYTso smart!
Biafra
It's so interesting how geopolitics are shaped around rare earth elements. It's why it's so interesting to read about Bolivia's lithium reserves. It has 21 million tonnes of it!
Portugal is in a middle of a political crisis due to a corruption scandal related to... u guessed lithium!
Lithium is fairly common in some parts of the world. Importantly for "Western Countries", Australia has enough easily mined lithium to last both themselves and Europe for a century.
So probably they are next on US hitlist. Now I see why they applied for BRICS and approached with China. US are cancer of free trade.
I don't think lithium is a rare earth, only the heavier elements in those funny bits of the periodic table
@@Twitchi yes, but it's also another raw material needed in the modern market as lithium bateries are needed for EVs, sollar panels of grid houses and industries etc.
its a coverup for the primal need to dig a hole
Diggy diggy hole!
True dat💯💯😂
Don’t let women activists hear you 🤭🫣
@@jSergiu Woooow, that came out of nowhere. What the hell?
Australia and the US also have large rare earth deposits. These are being speedily developed to replace Chinese imports.
Japan, BTW, answered the unofficial Chinese boycott by unofficially boycotting exporting computer chips to China, the reason why China quickly returned to normal trade with Japan.
Communism
@@visitante-pc5zc sucks
funny how the presenter just covered the chinese side of it to make it seem like they were the stronger party.
Sweden's been getting these rare materials like its a speedrun frfr
Several rare earth minerals were discovered in a single Swedish town lol
They got 1.18 Minecraft update
Rare earth metals and not rare.
@@kazioo2 🤓☝
I was invited for a lecture by representatives of Sweden's state owned mining company LKAB where they showed a process of making steel without carbon emissions using hydrogen. But I didn't know that they found rare earths in that hole too.
Here is a dose of reality: No they did not "Just" discover "rare earths" minerals in said mine. They have ALWAYS known rare earth minerals were there just as they are known to exist in ALL OTHER MINES IN THE WORLD. These elements are not rare for majority of them. The only difference is the west, REFUSES to REFINE said minerals as it is VERY toxic, expensive to do so. USA for instance up until ~1980-->90 used to refine 80+% of ALL the rare earth minerals in the world, but due to IDIOTIC laws which made refining them horrifically expensive, combined by not impose tarriffs of said minerals by other countries using slave labor and no environmental regulations lost all its refining capability of these minerals. The other ~20% were refined in EU countries. In this case, EU also did not pass tariffs on countries refining these minerals, as both EU/USA passed near identical refining laws on these elements at nearly identical dates in time.
Well, hydrogen isn't found alone in nature, it must be produced using some form of electricity. So I'm hoping that energy will be renewable.
@@Henrik46 ..yes its the biggest problem with Carbon free steel making...
...it takes alot energy make hydrogen...but as a bonus u get ALOT of oxygen (twice as much Hydrogen ), and to liquify both take even more energy.. but yes the electricity need to come from renewables...
if it would be from fossile fuel the relesed co2 would by faar exceed the win from co2 emission free steel...
...it is the BIGGEST problem about it...
..been official some time now...
...and it will be needed for electronics and batteries...
..also alot of Lithium for many years to come till the Sulphur cells been perfected
...in the future we will need a wide variety of different cells because thers to few rare earth metals for one single thechnology atm...
..on estimate Sweden will in the future need more rare metals than the whole wourld currently produces yearly.
@@Henrik46 The advantage of the Scandinavian countries is that they have vast amounts of hydro and wind available. While it might not be as viable in other countries which lack the constant supply of electricity, in Sweden at least it seems pretty viable to use their renewable stocks. Another country I can think of is Australia, which has tons of wind and solar available as well as massive amounts of iron.
I live on the edge of Finlands bigges limestone quarry, it's always a shock to my friends when my house shakes and you hear the explosion and shock waves, I'm so use to it, that I rarely notice it, the bigger detonitions threaten to brake the windows.. 😂
Hei! Olen ruotsalainen, rakastamme Suomea!
@@thegoat9533 Hej! Vi älskar Sverige! Vår storebror! 💙
Don’t let happen what Groningen went through. Demand that government compensates you for all those issues.
"Rare earths" are called that because they only exist in a few places, they are called "rare earth" because they thinly distributed in the ore wherever they are found. Unlike elements like gold, which can occur in veins that are nearly pure, or in high concentrations spread throughout the ore, rare earth minerals may be in microscopic chunks scattered thinly through the ore or may be trace minerals in another material. What makes rare earths "rare" is the large amount of ore you have to process to get a little of the sought after mineral. None of the rare earths is actually very rare, they are found all over the globe but not in economically recoverable concentrations.
Huh, the "rare" in "rare earth elements" isn't about rarity, as in difficult to find, they are literally everywhere in trace amounts. The difficulty lies in processing them, which leads to a lot of local pollution, that's why it has been historically "outsourced" to places where no one cares about pollution. Reality is just catching up with all the eco activism.
Cost of electricity also matters. China subsidise it for the mines. In Kiruna it happen to be incredibly low due to histotical reasons and very stable
Something that the critical raw materials act will likely change
@@joaquimbarbosa896 Well. i would probobly change the Likely to ... hopefully.
It's surprising there isn't enough effort in cleaner industrial processes. Cheaper and less polluting reprocessing of raw materials should be a matter of national security.
@@fedorbutochnikow5312 Well... i think there is a consideral effort. But the two main problem. Electricity consumption och dangerous waste materials, as Thorium. that to be fair, is not specially dangerous, still have a bit or radiotoxisity, is really hard to avoid.
China really just ignores the problem
As someone who is looking to study Geophysics at uni this topic is super interesting and makes me think of all the places I could be working in the future
pretty sure you dont want to work in Kiruna, there the sun never show it self for 6 months and its f-ing cold.
If this video does well for you, you might consider looking into Ontario's Ring of Fire. It's a massive deposit of minerals needed for low carbon technologies, but at the same time, some First Nations worry about the potential for another Grassy Narrows incident among other things, not to mention how intensely remote the deposit is. Anyway, lots of perspectives to explore. I feel it's a topic you'd cover quite well! 😁
Everything is remote in Canada.
The Hydro-Québec line that powers New York is total of 3400km.
I swear I get ads for ev manufacturing in Ontario all the time. And I think to myself: How many car brands do RUclips viewers statistically own?
Thanks man - I just read about it on Wikipedia. The article said Cliifs Natural Resources (Formerly Cleveland Cliffs Iron) is going to invest 3.2 billion dollars in the area. CCI was the biggest employer in my hometown when I was a kid. It looks like a money maker, but they will need good infrastructure to process and haul the product out. Mining can take a lot of energy to grind rock. If a smelter is built there, this will mean even more infrastructure. It'll take a few years to get those mines built. Those mines should have a ripple effect and produce many good paying jobs.
Staking rush in the RoF continues. Nothing coming out until somebody spends the billions for road and rail. Hope in a decade or two we can drive to James Bay.
Comparing concentration levels of the deposits is fine but the main advantage of the Swedish deposit is that it already has a mining industry developed in Kiruna. The whole town basically works in the mine extracting the iron from the ground. The rare earths are just a side hustle for them as they basically don't have to invest anything, especially not time, to extract those minerals aswell.
Yep. The biggest capital cost for any new large mine is always the associated infrastructure - railway, ports, worker housing etc. The only thing that makes this low grade rare earth deposit worth exploiting is that all that has already been there for over 100 years.
They have always been there it just hasnt made sence to separate them due to cost since china has given the rest of the world rare earths at a subsadised price for some reason. As soon as they stop giving their rare earths away cheap it makes sense to separate them at extraction.
Exactly, people just dont understand the exonomics of it
There have been found a larger deposit of rare earth minerals in Norway a while ago and there are planing to mine it, but unlike Kiruna, there is no mine there today.
The fact that Sweden already got a mine in the area makes them able to mine out the minerals quite cheap and quickly since they have a reduced cost for new infrastructure.
Excellent voice-over of a fairly complex text. Well done.
rare earth isnt as important as most people think, its the refining capability that's the key. if western countries want to, they can find other sources of rare earth outside of China, but they don't have the plants to refine it nor the massive skilled workforce needed to man it
We have the skilled workforce to refine them. Western countries however have much more strict environmental laws making getting permits to build a factory processing them much more difficult. We still have a lot of heavy chemical plants in europe and america that could provide the required experience.
The Chinese model has been to hyper invest in industrial processes to make themselves an indispensable part of the international supply chain. The process involve in refining rare earth elements are difficult and dirty and often a byproduct. The geopolitics demand both political and technological solutions.
The fact they found Rare earths basically in a prexisting mine is a windfall for a country trying to be eco friendly.
Isn't the larger problem the economic viability of these mining activities? Would be great to report more extensively on that, and consider the subsidize China has poured into the sector. Specifically, is it such a large issue in case of further trade restrictions to start mining the American and Australian deposits? And does the mine in Sweden provide a substantial geopolitical or economic benefit when compared to mines in Australia and North America?
The largest problem is waste deposit rules that china just ignores.
In Kiruna the cost of mining is not really a issue because its covered by Iron mining.
The cost of extracting it is also fairly low due to the cost of electric power in Kiruna is lower than in china because of hydropower and lack of transfer cables
The iron ore mining in Kiruna is already insanely profitable so that funds a lot of the mining process. So the REM only has to fund the extra processes to extract that.
@@matsv201Thank you, yes processing is the stumbling block. Very messy, and polluting.
@@carlthor91 Well. its not really that black and white. The process CAN be messy and polluting, and it can also not be.
What it always is is power consuming.
considering 10g of gold pr. ton is considered minimum yield to be profitable, 2g pr 5kg seams pretty good for something that is rarer
From what I gathered from the news when this was announced, "coincidentally" at the same time as the EU summit in Kiruna. I think the point was that it was enough iron ore to be a profitable expansion anyway. With the costs of establishing and so forth covered it's a very low risk but potentially a high reward. They need to get that permit, that's the thing though. Not sure where the Same stand on this but I think the environmental courts in Stockholm is going to be the biggest issue.
The problem is it is very dirty and polluting and their extraction is only processed by countries that don’t care about poisoning of their people
Yes, the famous rare earth deposits in Australia have long seemed first in line to break China’s stranglehold. But amazing to hear about Vietnam’s resources; that’s the statistically amazing factoid here. Sometimes it seems like Vietnam wants to join the rest of the world rather than China. Time will tell if they actually do.
Reindeers aren't that affected by the mine, if you look at the massive expanse that is north of Sweden then Kirunas mine is TINY.
Reindeer mortality is huge from sport hunting and vehicles road kills in Sweden.
Turkiye found also a good deposit in Eskisehir beylikova, estimated around 14 million tonnes of it. initially experimental plantation will work on it for a year before implementing any production plans
I believe the largest Rare Earth deposit is in Southern Norway. Part of it is in my forest there.
yea, but is it mineable or allowed to mine there?
@@MrAlexs888 I don't know the current status. It was very much in the media but I think I remember concerns about some of it being on top of agricultural land. Anyway, it is there for future generations to figure out what to do about it.
Talking about the Fen complex?
@@steffenc77 Yes. I only vaguely remember it was a big thing in the media many years ago, but I haven't heard any news in a long time.
@@fredmidtgaard5487...on top of agricultural land?
This sounds like it was mixed on a cellphone. The low end is so accentuated to make up for the lack of bass on a phone, that it's just a muddy wash of blarg.
Excellent content 👌🏻
North American Strategic Minerals Inc., ( NASM ) explores for rare earth metals after its founders recognized a significant new geologic model for rare earth mineralization hosted in paleo basin pelagic sediments. Similar rare earth mineralization was first noted in modern basin pelagic sediments found at various locations on the Pacific seafloor. The mechanism of formation of this new type of rare earth mineralization is the direct precipitation of these critical metals from seawater into seafloor pelagic sediments.
The magnet you showed in your stock footage, was an electro magnet, it uses no rare earths.
The west has ample supply of rare earths, it's just they are not economically viable to recover only because of the cost of complying with our environmental protection regulations. Regulations China does not impose.
The 'west' also raises the cost of their local mining via the higher wages.
@@Apollorionhigher wages are needed to compensate for the higher cost of living…due to higher levels of regulation.
I would love to visit China to see how carelessly the country is run.
@@HubertofLiege ... well, the removal of regulations concerning the handling of houses has made the price of housing skyrocket, so don't concentrate the high cost of living on high levels of regulations.
Also luxury & health care also boost the cost of labor.
By threatening to do so and actually doing so for a few months, China basically threw away this card, as the western world has started to see this weakness and taken meassures. A very dumb move.
Cards are useless if they can't be used. Same with the US using the swift sanctions
Actually pretty smart, they make a great distraction for Western nations to waste money on just starting pointless mines that are a tiny fraction of China's whole mineral reserves in their control so China can focus on building EV factories using Chinese batteries in Africa and Mexico to sell to Europe and USA to make their previous spending all the more pointless.
I doubt that China cares whether the rest of the world buys their rare earths, they have plenty of their own usages.
Canada also has one of the largest rare earth deposits at around 15milli9n tonnes
When a Dane speaks better English than 50% of England
Lmao
I work for one of the few global rare earth refiners. We are building the only rare earth magnet production facility in Europe. I hope this mine in Sweden works out because we would be a big customer!
Of course Sweden needs to mine this, concerns about the Sami are really over exaggerated there's still huge amounts of land and the mine even though large don't make up even 2% of the land in the area. Sweden have the most effective and modern mining industry in the world, because of a very spars population in Northern Sweden more advanced machinery and automation have been necessary. Also just like it's said in the video this is the largest iron-ore mine in the world. It a lone produce 80% of all iron-ore in Europe. And it will be economical because you can mine the iron in the ore at the same time.
Not the biggest iron ore mine in the world. Both Brazil and Australia have plenty of iron ore mines that are 5 times that size.
@@Dave_Sisson OP is confused, it's the largest underground iron mine, I guess it's easy to forget details that make your claims less impressive.
Sweden has the most efficient and modern mining industry? Since when?
sami entered scandinavia in the last 2000 years. they can move back to russia if they dont want to adapt to scandinavian cultures
@@bennyklabarpan7002 That still makes them predate any existence of scandinavian culture that far north. Hell, the “local roots” of what came to later be called scandinavian culture didn’t form until 1000-1500 years ago.
And to OP; Sweden has been treating the Sami people the same way, or worse, than the US and Canada have been treating their indigenous populations. I agree that the mine should be developed but LKAB and the Swedish government should provide an equal amount of land (of equal value) for the Sami to use when they get displaced. And yes, that’s a “when”, not an “if”.
a very very good video . best regards Johan from sweden
We have those in Serbia too,but we blocked the exploitation of them and had huge protests becouse of those.
Did it happen so that the protest was finased by China?
When depicting the EU on the map: Why leave out Denmark? It was one of the founding members...
Some people even thinking about mining on the moon but there's deep sea mining and still mining on Antarctica which would even be on land on earth.
Resources are power.
Swedes don't realize how lucky they are... They're already one of the wealthiest and best countries to live in and they just keep getting buffed
He y we just found the largest rare earth mineral here in the state of North Dakota. It's 30 feet deep covering 450 sq. miles. The samples are over 2,500 parts per million. To be commercially viable they look for 300.
IMy understanding is that Rare Earth minerals exist in the US, but they are mixed with other elements like Thorium which is radioactive, complicating the mining of the Rare Earth elements. The US doesn't use Thorium for anything, so it is considered a Radioactive Waste material and would need to be properly disposed of. Expensive. Now, if we stared using Thorium for Energy production, that calculation would change.
if they were to make a drill platform over it and frack the rock they could self contain all of the chemical reactions that make the minerals soluble in lite acids, then it becomes a slow water filtering project that leaves the underground not aquifer as a water pocket that can be electrified to create hydrogen/oxygen gas to self frack its self creating a pressure spike that forces mineral sand out from the bottom. ... a few times the 8 miles of drill rod/casing can be blown out of the ground because the pressures are very high, have to push the bomb button to plug the whole thing when that happens and hope one of the other taps don't brake loose. as acid erosion works an initial 8 mile drill depth can go past 20 miles... but the pit mined rock that had the prosperous baked out of it works good for drainage ditches as its full of holes.
Electric vehicle mining is probably one of the new most damaging things were currently doing as a race
Before you know it...the Swiss won't have any dirt to put another shovel to. 👷
👇
The plant certainly is worth it. And while it may not be great for some local Saami, global warming is a far larger issue for them. It's a trade-off to save the semi-Arctic environment they and the reindeer depend on.
A very interesting situation and subject matter
Also, If it is not heavily subsidized, it will probably not be commercially viable.
Greenland-Denmark and Finland ripe for exploration.
greaaaat. for every 1 ton of rare earth mined 100 tons of toxic waste are created. where is it going?
may not be worth it ATM but as technology improves as well as new and more more efficient processing techniques are developed it may become a viable source of rare Earths
They don’t have a monopoly of it, just a monopoly of bureaucrats willing to allow companies to extract it with little to no oversight
"All embrace me, its my time to rule atlast"
Possibly an ancient meteorite strike?
Nopp. Probobly more likely vulcano. The deposit isn't that rich
rare earth elements must be mined on asteroids already.
Why we need to pour everything we have into asteroid mining
it is for sweden to decide what they want to with this site. it would be good for the eu though.
Generaly speaking, giving the locals a lot of compensation would make it more like for the locals to agree to the mine.
It not so much about the finding of rare earths. Its all about the processing capabilities.
develop it and hold it in reserve.
Theyre also digging the biggest metaphorical one
Sweden and all countries should encourage internal industrial production. Disregarding the fact that the CCP wants to subvert and subjugate the world, having local national production capability shall protect against any other threat that appears.
I would expect all countries with mines to reinforce all tunnels so that the surface does not collapse. Since it’s a iron production mine, they would have plenty enough rebar to make supportive concrete pillars.
The sami protest was almost certainly finansed by china
This is the long awaited sequel to Minecraft
Rare earth minerals are not so rare anymore. They are found everywhere it seems. Now the question is, in who's backyard will it be processed ?
It’s gotten so bad that most countries that do mine rare earths end up sending it to China for refinement.
My PhD in geology does not exist; therefore I wouldn't have a clue.
the negatives can be mitigated with land reclaimation being accounted for and easily put the land back when the mine dries up just like they do in other places. It doesn't take very long to regrow habitat.
It's implied that the existing mine was already operational for decades. Taking land out of use for decades would do a lot of environmental damage.
@@Imaboss8ballBut it's not out of use. It's being used.
@@thysonsacclaim out of use to the environment
@@Imaboss8ball really if they put everything back there is no environmental damage maybe displace the local wildlife for a few decades that means they are required to clean up any chemicals before letting nature come back true environmental damage is places like chernobyl or any hundreds of thousands of places that have been so chemically damaged that nothing should live there
Not sure why you didn't put any rare earth markers on Canada on that world map image
According to the Government of Canada, we do not have any commercial production of Rare earth elements yet. It’s all in the ground, waiting to be mined.
Who owns the rare earth deposits in Greenland?
This all makes me to believe that, with ever growing demand and a very finite amount of rare earth material (currently), electronics will become a novelty for the rich in the far far future. So we're pretty lucky i reckon
No. That's not how it works. When you dig all the coal or oil from the ground and burn it it's over. When you dig lithium you can recycle it forever and it only gets purer and better. Once there are giant amounts of lithium batteries in the world we won't even need to dig anymore because recycling will be the main source of all needed lithium. And btw there are astronomical amounts of lithium in the world. All that salt water in oceans has lithium - currently not used due to cost of getting it from water, but it's doable.
As the value for rare earth metals increases so does the amount of metal available. The main limiting factor is the cost to extract that metal.
we need focus on asteroid mining
Another mineral that is abundant in Sweden, but which "environmentalists" have used their activism to ban its extraction, is now being changed by the latest government.
Uranium
SO! What I've learned from playing Minecraft, is that you can get a good chunk of everything in a nice 5x5 chunk area. MEANING everywhere has rare earth minerals. They just need to start dligging down =D
I hope sweden does not fuck up this and sell the rights to random rich company
Sounds like rather than inventing new technology based off of these hard to get materials we should be looking for ways to make new technology that can compete on equal footing with current tech that use common materials.
Can't see how the expansion of the mine would seriously effect the natives - be different if it were a new mine being opened.
Norway found some in its south also. Not long till that bridge to germany is built 😊
Jag vet hur detta slutar.
"Trent stood at the edge of the rip, stared into the unlimitable gulf of the unknown, the Stygian world yawning blackly beyond. Trent's eyes refused to close, he did not shriek, but the hideous unholy abominations shrieked for him, as in the same second he saw them spill and tumble upward out of an enormous carrion black pit, choked with the gleaming white bones of countless unhallowed centuries. He began to back away from the rip as the army of unspeakable figures, twilit by the glow from the bottomless pit, came pouring at him towards our world…"
All holes are the same. It's how much energy it costs for taking materials out.
Than it makes more sense to run an €12000 900kG Aygo than the €120000 2,5t Tesla with less range. And long charging times.
I'm not an expert but that's a lot of earth above them with digging at such a degree. Even with shoring.
isn't there a likely site in Cornwall as well??
What about Australia? It also has rare earth mines...?!
A lot of countries do. This video is about Sweden though, not Australia.
Honestly i half expect there to be some eldritch monster sleeping in it. Or for the rare earth it's self to suddenly develop intelligence and start killing everything, like everything else does in Australia.
Gold, silver, oil, rare earths…it’s weird how certain substances can change the course of history depending on who is lucky enough to be sitting on top of them at the time. Who cared about Lithium 50 years ago? Who will care about oil 50 years from now?
audio has an echo quality to it. hard to hear anything
Interesting!
These deposits exist all over the world. Eventually we'll get desperate enough to dig up all of them, or just dig up the moon instead.
4:51 Denmark is not part of the EU anymore?
in other words another insanely mineral-rich skandinavian country
Electromagnets do not require rare earth minerals.
It ain’t the minerals that are rare, it is a processing plant that does not destroy the environment. China is the largest producer because they don’t care who dies from the processing or the damage it does to the environment from the mega toxic waste dumps.
You don't use your own reserves if you can raid it from other countries!
When you pronounce Kiruna, you should place the stress on the first syllable : KI-ru-na not ki-RU-na. /A Swede
Han är dansk. Ingen idé att ens försöka.
How long before the next mining boom is recycling devices? ..so many millions of tons of devices have higher concentration of rare earths than anywhere in the world. How long before they are a valuable resource?
how are these considered green?
Rare earths not rare.
Ooooo you didn't color Taiwan red. Pooh bear is gonna come get you.
how long before they're all used up
??
its like what he is saying in the end, but he say´s it like a "option" but it´s the reason why we will mine it, to ensure that Europe has it´s own Rare Earth productions, not to win the global market.
Большое спасибо за ваш труд
Are your reading subtitles or understand English in the video but prefer to write in your language?
Genuine question. It struck me for the first time reading your - translated - thank you.
Om du vill att man ska förstå det där texten får du skriva på Svenska.
As a Sami I have heard there is a lot of people unhappy with the existing mining in the northern portion of Fennoscandia. Although, I have to mentioned that I am not very involved in the larger Sami community, and this is just what I have been told by people who are involved a bit more than I.