Swedish mining company LKAB has discovered what CEO Jan Moström called "the largest known deposit of rare earth elements in our part of the world."
Demand for rare earth metals has skyrocketed in recent years with the adoption of electric vehicles, wind turbines, and other renewable energy and battery technologies, making the find a big deal indeed.
“Without mines, there can be no electric vehicles,” Moström said in a press release.
LKAB stumbled upon the Per Geijer deposit at its iron ore mine in Kiruna, which is nearly 600 miles north of Stockholm in the arctic region of Sweden.
Ebba Busch, Sweden’s minister of energy and business, touted the geologic find as a win for the European Union's ongoing efforts to achieve energy independence from Russia and China — countries which currently extract and refine the bulk of the world's rare earth minerals.
”We need to strengthen industrial value chains in Europe and create real opportunities for the electrification of our societies. Politics must give the industry the conditions to switch to green and fossil-free production,” she said.
Mining the resources, however, could be a long way off. LKAB explained in the announcement that it first needs to receive what's called an "exploitation concession" from the government. It also needs to complete its own due diligence to understand the conditions of the deposit before it starts rolling in the equipment. The company expects the process to take 10 to 15 years.
“We are already investing heavily to move forward, and we expect that it will take several years to investigate the deposit and the conditions for profitably and sustainably mining it," said Moström
He added that the Swedish government should change the permit process to speed up the mine's development.
Over a dozen states are under air quality alerts as smoke from the Canadian wildfires continues to make its way across the country.
Millions of Americans continue to be under a heat advisory as extreme temperatures are still affecting the southern U.S.
Be Well: How to Protect Your Skin From Bug Bites This Summer
As we reported on Friday, a suspect has been charged in connection with a series of murders that took place on Gilgo Beach, Long Island more than a decade ago. The victims' remains were found between 2010 and 2011 after the disappearance of one woman resulted in a search of the area. This morning, our sister network News 12 reported that police in Suffolk County are now executing a search warrant at a storage unit.
The suspect in a shooting that left four people dead in Hampton, Georgia on Saturday was killed by police.
A 7.2 magnitude earthquake was reported in Alaska over the weekend, leading to a brief tsunami warning.
Over 11 million Americans are under a heat advisory, with the extreme weather hitting the southern U.S.
If someone's number is drawn Monday night, it will be the third-largest jackpot in Powerball's history — its largest was November 2022's $2.04 billion prize — and the seventh-largest of any U.S. lottery.
French President Emmanuel Macron hailed Birkin as a “complete artist,” noting that her soft voice went hand-in-hand with her “ardent” activism. Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak called Birkin “the most French British person" and “the emblem for a whole epoch who never went out of fashion."
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut ruled that banning large capacity magazines and requiring a permit to purchase a gun falls in line with “the nation’s history and tradition of regulating uniquely dangerous features of weapons and firearms to protect public safety," Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
