Huge deposit of critical rare earth minerals, the production of which which China absolutely dominates, discovered in Norway — by far largest in Europe.

https://www-nrk-no.translate.goog/vestfoldogtelemark/gigantfunn-av-verdifulle-metaller-pa-fensfeltet-i-telemark-1.16909406?_x_tr_sl=no&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=no&_x_tr_pto=wapp

by lapzkauz

29 comments

  2. Our country is like a seemingly bad settling location in civ that has a lot of late game strategic resources

  3. Man, Norway really won the geological lottery. Oil, gas, hydro, rare earth minerals. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next weeks news is, that they discovered a 1000t block of pure gold.

  5. Fuck it, I’m moving to Norway! You guys don’t seem to ever get a bad streak.

  7. Wasn’t there a similar story from Sweden recently? Maybe not so rare earth minerals after all.

  10. If you can get the environmental permit for digging them up. 😬

  12. Norway has so much natural resources it’s not even funny.

  14. Rare earth minerals really aren’t that rare. There extraction is just very difficult and often an environmental disaster

  15. This is amazing. If we want to stop climate change **OUR GREEN METALS** is what we need to do it! If you want to save the world, make more mining a top priority! It helps stop climate change, makes Europe more geopolitically independent and gives good-paying jobs to our young people.

    Imagine, all of these great deposits have just laid there in the ground the whole time. And there’s probably much more to be found. Establishing new mines and more prospecting is exactly what we need for the future. It’s true.

    It’s also very important that we legislate to give better compensation to local towns for allowing a mine to be established there, because that’s often the main reason they don’t want one in their town! Putting a generous tax on profits that go to local schools, hospitals and the elderly is the way to do it. That way the local people can prosper from it too.

    If you like the environment you should like mines, because this is the good stuff we need to save it. So this is really good news, and something we should be really happy about!

    Great news!

  16. Could cover 10% of Europe’s rare earth needs in 2030

  17. Didn’t we have similar big discoveries of rare earth in Turkey and Sweden recently?

  19. Come on man, first you get oil and gas, and just as everyone is transitioning to EVs you find rare earth as well? What cheat codes you using?

  20. Norway: Oh no, our vast oil reserves are starting to run low, we will have to rely on our massive wealth fund in the future.

    Also Norway: I’ve struck gold again!

  21. I wish people would differentiate between the mining and the refining of rare earth minerals. While China certainly has some rare earth mineral deposits, [what it actually dominates is the refining of these minerals](https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/57318397-fdd4-11ed-a05c-01aa75ed71a1). Unless there are rules, funding, and political will to create these refineries in Europe (or diversify away from relying on non-like-minded countries), then a deposit in Norway is not going to do much.

    Luckily, the Commission has actually done a lot of work on this. Among other things, the Commission has done a lot of [studies](https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/raw-materials/areas-specific-interest/critical-raw-materials_en) on this subject (part of the reason we know so much about the dependencies), as well as enacted the [Critical Raw Materials Act](https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/raw-materials/areas-specific-interest/critical-raw-materials/critical-raw-materials-act_en) and the [Net-zero Industries Act](https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal/green-deal-industrial-plan/net-zero-industry-act_en), which both seek to address these issues. On top of that, there has been rumours of an [international critical raw materials club](https://www.delorscentre.eu/en/publications/critical-raw-materials-club) to help boost diversification.

  22. I don’t get the reporting on this stuff. There are a lot of rare earth deposits across the Earth. The reason most of the mining is happening in China is a matter of economics.

  23. I wonder how soon Russia will start mentioning it’s actually their land for some reason

  25. If I remember correctly the issue with rare earths is not that they are really rare, but that the environmental impact of processing these is significant, so it’s really profitable to extract in China where environmental rules are lax. I wonder how Norwegians are planning to handle it.

  26. Cool I guess, but I doubt Norway will allow mines 

  27. Telemark also happens to be one of the most Thorium rich deposits in the world

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