>

Hungary hasn’t ratified it yet either
Welcome to NATO! >

I wonder if it was kept under wraps until this very moment as a bargaining chip. >

'This huge deposit of rare valuable Materials were just sitting there, in the vault...  no one knew... honestly.' 
-Sweden >

"To our surprise they were already forged, purified and polished" >

"And they had Swiss markings." >

"Which is good because we are Swiss"
I am stupid..... >

Switzerland is where the 'Swiss' live.
Sweden is where the 'Swedes' live. 
Source: I am descended from 'Swedes'. >

Swede is also a kind of turnip >

Ok, Denmark. >

They call it that in the UK too apparently. >

Swedish geologist here who can provide a bit of context to this. As it happens my main field is rare earth elements (REE), and their formation within these types of ores that they are talking about. I have no connection to LKAB, the state owned mining firm that announced the discovery. 
While they are hailing this as a deposit of REEs what it most likely is is a greenwashing by the Swedish state, and LKAB to more easily sell the public on more iron mining, as this is really just yet another iron ore that happens to have a high content of REE. Shockingly high to be honest, almost enough to make me a bit skeptical that they hadn’t misplaced a decimal in the press release. 
The major iron ore deposits that are mined in the Kiruna area, Kirunavaara, Malmberget and so on are what are known as iron-oxide apatite deposits. These occur in other places in Sweden, including central Sweden, Grängesberg, Blötberget to name a couple, and in the world. They are rich in, well, iron, as well as the mineral apatite, which containes abundant phosphorus. Phosphate minerals like apatite have a habit of acting as sort of a vacuum for REEs, enriching them in thes iron ores. These deposits also contain other REE minerals, xenotime, monazite, allanite.
Now why do I suggest that this is greenwashing? Well REEs are a hot topic right now due to being metals that are critical in transitioning to green technology, as well as other high tech uses. 
The currently mined iron oxide apatite mines up right next door to this new ore body also are rich in REE. Not as rich, but they come out to be about 0.07 percent on average in these ores, but the sheer volume of ore means that the potential tonnage is high. But they aren't hailed in the media as a harbinger of European REE independance. 
Now, apatite and its phosphorus is not wanted in iron, so when the iron ore is crushed and enriched on site, it produces a waste sand known as tailings, which are then dumped in ponds near to the mine. The tailings are enriched in the apatite and other REE rich minerals, as the iron has been taken out. 
Just the tailings pond in Kiruna, which amount to 76 million tonnes of tailings (as of 2019) have been measured to contain 0.12% REE. Pretty close to what is reported from this new deposit. Combined with other tailings repositories in the area, it is potentially hundreds of thousands of tonnes of REE just sitting there, ready to go more or less, already mined and crushed. They could easily be exploiting that resource if they were serious about REE production. To be fair, there are projects working on it, but  it is still small scale pilot projects.
But they don't get splashy international headlines because like I said, I doubt this is really about them hot to mine REE. It is because they want to get at the easy to extract, easy to process iron fast, so the Swedish government makes a big announcement, to sell this as an REE deposit and try and get mining it faster, and wrapping it up in a big green bow to try and make the environmentalists and the Sami keep quiet. >


try and make the  Sami keep quiet.      

A time honoured Swedish tradition. >

What is the Sami? >

They are the original indigenous people of the far north of Fennoscandia, inhabiting the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland. Culturally and linguistically they are somewhat related to the Finns, but were traditionally nomadic. They were displaced north progressively by the Germanic Scandinavians and Christian Finns from the south, and then starting in the 1800s they suffered a similar kind of treatment as indigenous people in other parts of the world, including discrimination, forced assimilation practices and attempts to erase their cultures and languages.
Today they are recognised as the indigenous people of the north and have some autonomy and protection, but there is a long history in Sweden and the other Nordic countries of ignoring and mistreating them. That is what OP was referring to. The Sami lands are rich in many minerals, and also are home to a lot of hydroelectric capacity, and that means that their lands have suffered negatively from an environmental perspective despite their opposition. >


original indigenous people 

very far from, komsa culture is more than 8000 years before, they are indigenous because they were inhabitants before the countries were officially countries >

The Sami settled from the East, Bronze Age swedes from the South. They were mixed for many centuries, with the "forest Sami" living as far South as Dalarna. The Sami would have a nomadic or semi-nomadic culture not far from settled farmers. Meanwhile, the southern Swedes settled the Baltic Sea coast quite early on, even pretty far up north. The area around e.g. Kiruna was colonized later in a more intentional way. >

yes, but komsa people settled north of samis/kvens before that >


Archaeological evidence indicates that the Komsa culture was almost exclusively sea-oriented, living mainly off seal hunting and being able boat-builders and fishermen.

Also, they lived along the Norwegian coast, so they didn't really have contact with the farmers who came later. >

Bad news for China, good news for world balance. >

Agreed. You have to deal with the Thorium and Uranium content in many of the ores, not to mention all the other toxic waste produced separating the different rare earth oxides. The reason why China dominates the processing of the ores is because, it frankly does not care as much about toxicity/radioactivity/environment. Also the 8 or so major rare earth processing companies in China have some state ownership and are heavily subsidized (China considers rare earths to be a national security issue). As such, Chinese rare earth producers can undercut almost all others when it comes to the price of the oxides and pure metals. I doubt Sweden is going into rare earth processing, so it would most likely have to make its money from selling the crude ore to China. Whether they can make the money from selling the ore really boils down to the type of rare earths found in the deposit.  The largest rare earth miner in the US (out West) still has not turned a profit. >


I doubt Sweden is going into rare earth processing, so it would most likely have to make its money from selling the crude ore to China.

We are actually. More specifically, LKAB is planning to do so in Norway, in partnership with Norwegian company Reetec. There's also plans to do some processing in a new industrial park in north Sweden near this mine. Here's an article in Swedish about it. >

Well then Kudos to Sweden and Norway! Well done! I wish the US government had the courage to do what is necessary for US miners. >

They already did. They are restoring Mountain Pass Mine (an huge deposit) on government dime/US environment. 
It is likely only to be used for military use however, ensuring we got proper amount of RE for bombs if we go to war with China. 
It isn't gonna make your Iphone cheaper :) >

> It isn't gonna make your Iphone cheaper :)  
It might. If the US military is buying less rare earths on the international market then that reduces the demand on that source. >

that indirect reduction in materials cost will not translate into savings for you >

Yeah. Bidens release of strategic petroleum didn't lessen the prices OR make a profit. Nothing matters, give your money to Lrrr.
Edit: god fukin dammit here ya go: /s. 
Can you not find an obscure Futurama reference as enough of a "/s"? >

Uh, the US made billions off those sales, because they were selling oil for $97 that was bought for a whole lot less than that. Now that prices are down in the $70s they're starting to buy it back. Buy low, sell high, that's sort of how it is supposed to work, right? >

Given that Yttrium - a rare-earth element- was discovered in a Swedish village, this is not all that surprising. >

I feel like I'm in a Dr Seuss science class >

Mmm, green eggs and yttribrebiumxcjasdfjhjkl >

Cheers I'm sat by myself in a hotel restaurant and just laughed out maniacally. Earned some very odd looks >

Well now they have a reason to rush their nato membership, before someone declares this Russian >

It's Turkey holding it up, they're trying to blackmail Sweden and Finland into declaring anyone they don't like terrorists. They also don't seem to get the concept of an independent judiciary, as they're also demanding the Swedish government extradite a few journalists and kurds - which isn't really up to the government, even if they wanted to do it.