Literally. Pretty wild news in light of everything going on in Europe.

The discovery here of a large deposit of rare-earth elements, vital for renewable energy and electric vehicles, offers fresh hopes for Europe’s transition away from fossil fuels and a lessened reliance on China, the world’s top supplier of the critical minerals.

Announcing potentially the largest known find in Europe, Swedish state-owned mining company LKAB said Thursday that some of the rare-earth elements in the deposit could be used to produce permanent magnets, which are components in motors for electric vehicles and wind turbines. The company said the rare-earth elements could be produced as a byproduct of mining iron ore.

The deposit “could become a significant building block for producing the critical raw materials that are absolutely crucial to enable the green transition,” LKAB Chief Executive Jan Moström said.

The finding comes as the European Union seeks to reduce its dependence on China for the rare-earth elements needed to produce electronics, batteries and other products. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, plans to propose legislation on critical raw materials early this year, which aims to boost the EU’s provisions of the vital industrial supplies.

The beginning of the end of Europe’s dependency on China for precious rare earth materials may lie buried deep under the rugged reaches of northern Sweden. https://t.co/4iTzSmQmVR

— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 13, 2023

It’s quite a significant find, too. “Large” doesn’t seem adequate as a descriptor but maybe that’s mine-speak for “honkin’ huge.”

…The newly discovered deposit holds an estimated one million tonnes of rare-earth oxides, LKAB said. Rare-earth elements are extracted from rare-earth oxides.

That volume should be enough to meet much of Europe’s expected demand for manufacturing permanent magnets, the company said.

The Swedes, who currently hold the presidency of the EU, are going to spend the next six months putting an emphasis on what they call “critical minerals” legislation. And they probably ought to get on it, seeing as how Europe is darn near completey reliant on imports – especially from China – for all of the magic that is needed to make their Green schemes pan out.

…The European Union imports 99% of its rare earth elements from the country, according to a 2020 report — and mining them closer to home has been identified as a key goal for the bloc.

In her 2022 State of the Union address, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said rare earth elements, along with lithium which is also used in batteries, would “soon be more important than oil and gas.” The EU expects demand to increase fivefold by 2030.

Jan Moström, LKAB’s chief executive, called the discovery “good news, not only for LKAB, the region and the Swedish people, but also for Europe and the climate.”

The discovery comes with its downside, of course. The first being what it’s going to do to the land around the already existing mine and the indigenous people who live near there. Rare earth minerals are mined in open pits – there’s no way to disguise what’s going on there. The Swedish solution is going to be to move the community, as the mining already in progress had destabilized the ground.

…LKAB’s announcement was met with concern from members of the region’s Sami indigenous population, who said development of the mineral deposit would split a traditional area for reindeer herding and damage their right to exercise their culture.

Sami people will be forced “to give up land, culture, Sami place names, traditions and future in the area where our ancestors have lived since ancient times,” representatives of Sami reindeer-herding communities said in a statement on Thursday.

The community of Kiruna, the residential area closest to the deposit and where an iron-ore mine is already operating, is now being transplanted to a new location because mining activity has affected the stability of the ground. The municipality is in the process of relocating residents and buildings, including an iconic wooden church that is more than 100 years old.

It always kind of cracks me up how socialist do-gooders lecture everyone about native and indigenous rights superseding yours at any given time…until it’s something their collective socialist goals need. Then it’s OUT YA GO, HIAWATHA and they send ’em packing.

The second is simply the time it’s going to take to pull those first loads of ore out of the earth, and I’m guessing that’s what the EU legislation is going to address. Perhaps they’re going to try to streamline the decades-long, labyrinthine permitting processes. Estimates are as long as 15 years right now before mining commences…

…However, the company said the road to mining would be “long,” with an exploration license still to be submitted and several more years of exploration needed to discover the full extent of the deposit.

“If we look at how other permit processes have worked within our industry, it will be at least 10-15 years before we can actually begin mining and deliver raw materials to the market,” Moström said.

…but could be even longer if Euro-environmental activists go full bore, as they’ve been known to do.

…The project is far from the only contentious mining plan in the EU. From lithium mines in Western Spain and Central Portugal, to a copper mine in Romania — where opponents have been buying up land within the project development area — campaigners could hamper the EU’s attempt to mine its way out of China’s monopoly.

Umbach, the King’s College London researcher, said that where “promising projects” emerge in Europe, they run “immediately also into local environmental protests. So it’s obviously difficult.”

Considering what’s happened between October, when the above paragraph was written, and the winter of shortages Europe is going through now? I would bet the hierarchy in Brussels will be a little less sympathetic to activist tantrums when they have a tangible solution in situ.