>

Suddenly feel like Sweden really needs some good ole fashion ‘Murican DEMOCRACY
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. >

Hungary hasn’t ratified it yet either >

Hungary can go eat a bag of dicks and watch themselves become part of the CCCPv2.0.  Turkey has actual strategic value given its location spanning Europe and Asia, as well as a respectable military. >

Finland and Sweden for Hungary is a no-brainer. >

[Heyman] NATO has acquired Finland and Sweden in exchange for Hungary and a Baltic state to be named later. Deal is pending physical. >


[Heyman] NATO has acquired Finland and Sweden in exchange for Hungary and a Baltic state to be named later. Deal is pending physical.

Carlos Correa in a NATO uniform on the front page of ESPN tomorrow? >

Aren't there like 5 elements isolated from the samples of a single mine? >

9 elements actually. 4 of them are named after the town Ytterby. Yttrium, Ytterbium, Terbium, Erbium, Holmium, Skandium, Tulium, Gadolinium, Tantalum*. >

What are the reasons that it's all pretty much located there? I mean good for Sweden but I want some too? ;/ oh well guess I'll just live my life without any rare earth elements then. >

Well it's not that they only exist there, that's just where they were discovered for the first time. The reason it's so many different ones is  because of how they naturally occur in the first place. If you find one of them, you're very likely to find most of the others in the mix as well. That's why you always see them referred to by the group name and not by their individual names. >

Great insight thanks! >

Also worth noting that Sweden "just" went from being a major empire, to an age of liberty and science, to fight on the winning side of the Napoleonic wars, and starting even more science. And then, when everyone else was fighting 2 world wars, Sweden was just sitting there, playing with it's rocks. 
It really is notable how much Sweden with a population of today only 10 million, has contributed so much to science. But Sweden was simply more of a power back in the day. 
Also worth noting that it was one guy who proved a lot of these elements. >

Entire planet has been bombarded by asteroids and comets it’s likely many places have these. It’s the environmental cost of extracting them being the issue. >

That’s not how geology works. The entire surface of our planet has been reworked and recycled continuously since at least 500 million years after the late heavy bombardment. Where mineral deposits are now has to do with all of the geology that’s happened since then: plate tectonics, hot spot magmatism, weathering, etc. >

Yet the idea of the post is correct. Rare Earth deposits are, in opposite to their names, not actually rare. The real reason a few countries produce most of the worldwide demand is that purifying the material leaves a lot of toxic sludge and most countries don't want to deal with that.
Other countries like china don't give a fuck about producing masses of toxic stuff so they like to fill the role of the provider. >

China has some special deposits where rare earths can be or have been produced as a byproduct of iron mining. From an economic standpoint, you can’t beat a byproduct as a primary producer. The deposit they are working (Bayan Obo) is absolutely enormous, so the byproduct rare earths filled the market demand nicely until demand really ramped up. There are lots of small rare earth occurrences all over the world, but you have to beat the economics to make it worthwhile. The US finally reopened Mountain Pass last year after not having an active rare earth mine for decades. It’s not that the only thing China had going for it was weak environmental regulations… that definitely helped, but Bayan Obo is just so massive (40% of the ENTIRE WORLD’S known REE reserves in ONE deposit—basically unparalleled in resource geology) and rare earths can be produced as a byproduct there, so even without the regulations, other nations’ rare earth deposits just paled in comparison and it wasn’t worth it to mine them. >

As I understood it, this deposit is extremely rich in rare earth metals. 0.18% I believe it was. And it is really rich in iron, phosphorus and fluorine which will be mined as well. So, there will be many byproducts. >

Get them into NATO asap! >

Can't we just invade them instead?
/s >

How are they doing on that democracy? I'm sure we could bring them a little more. >

I'm pretty sure they got a lot of socialism and could use a nice big influx of freedom as a gift from the good ole U-S-of-A. >

Lol I know it's a joke, but Sweden is far from being a socialist country! >

They definitely need to be in NATO. Their risk just increased dramatically. >

We are in the EU.
If we get attacked it is still WW3, just with a slightly slower start. >

Oh, absolutely. NATO is a nice additional security blanket, but if Russia attacks Sweden all bets are off generally, I think. I don't think Russia are that dumb (plus they can't fight on more than one front). >

Which belong to the Swedish people right?
...right? >

The mining company is state owned so... yes. >

...and the chairman of the board is former Prime Minster Göran Persson (1996–2006) >

Vilket är så jävla sjukt >

Sossar gonna soss >

Sweden has been added to NATO >

Nordic countries really do have it best. >

America about to find some weapons of mass destruction. >

I bet they have WMD too... >

We don't. Just look at the map. Denmark is still there. >

US: you want some freedom? >

The only metals Sweden is used to discovering are death metals. >

HAIL!!🤘🔥🤘 >

Russia finds documents saying they own Sweden. >

I swear I just heard the screaming of a bald eagle saying “Are you ready for some freedom!?” >

Why is it impossible to find any mention of WHAT rare earth element deposits they are referring to?!? >

They're too rare. >

Sweden joins NATO.
Or American will bring it Freedom otherwise. >

I smell a country in need of freedom >

Don't worry soon the region they're in will have a very oro Russia rebellion and little green men in vacation will ensure "fair" elections >

Sweden doesn’t even border Russia >

guess they will be even richer >

I live 10 miles from a mining superfund site. I know we need these resources to move into the future but at what cost to humans? Lead and arsenic are in our waterways from it already. Cancer rates are high in my area as well. Mining is never a green solution. >

Wasn't this find near Kiruna? The entire reason that city exists is because of the mines. There isn't a better place in the country to dig for these metals, considering the infrastructure already in place- >

Also it will be "farmable" in about 10-15 years >

Thats great but lithium isn't classified as a rare earth element. >

Operation Golden Eagle is a Go. >

Sweden bounta become very popular or vanish from all media attention completely just like Uganda and that massive gold deposit >

Could take up to 15 years to start mining it due to bureaucracy according to the text.
That sounds so dumb.. >

Aren't most rare earth elements named after a mine in Sweden? >

You lucky bastards!
Wait til we see the difference in how much this industry benefits the local population, as opposed to how much the population of African nations benefited from finding REMs on their land.
Be interested to see how they deal with the corporate vultures that will be offering bribes to every politician in Sweden. >

Sweden about to hollow. >

Better fast track that NATO app. >

As a CK3 fan, it has always been known that Sweden has high deposits of useful minerals. >

This reminds me how sometimes real life is like, totally random.
Everyone was talking about how China has cornered the market on rare earth minerals and how the US needs to get on it... And then BAM! SWEDEN swoops in like, "BOOYAH BETCHES!" >

Unobtainium?! >

This means the cost of these rare earth metals will go down right? Right…? >

"FOR ROCK AND STONE" >

Like... In their banks? >

America: "Sweden needs democracy."
China: "Sweden has always been part of China." >

Did someone say rare earth elements?
"Next up, Sweden housing terrorists with weapons of mass destruction...." >

This is good news for all of us.
Reducing reliance on China for rare earth metals is good for everyone in the West. >

Don't let the Russians know or they might try and free them from all the Nazis. >

Sounds like Sweden needs some freedom >

Sounds like Sweden could use some Freedom
-America >

America heavy breathing "lemme touch it"