Supersonic 49,376 Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 Swedish state-owned mining company LKAB on Thursday said it had identified more than 1 million tonnes of rare earth oxides in the Kiruna area in the far north of the country, the largest known such deposit in Europe. Rare earth minerals are essential to many high-tech manufacturing processes and are used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, portable electronics, microphones and speakers. "This is good news, not only for LKAB, the region and the Swedish people, but also for Europe and the climate," LKAB CEO Jan Mostrom said in a statement. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/swedens-lkab-finds-europes-biggest-deposit-rare-earth-metals-2023-01-12/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auralegends 8,912 Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 Good for Europe to be less dependent on China for the materials to make all kinds of products for renewable energy and other things. On the other side I think it's a bit hypocritical to say this will help achieve our goals for a more sustainable world (fit-for-55 proposals and so on) but at the same time we are using up a new batch of rare materials Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
weed 78,959 Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 Sweden would extract them ethically (in terms of human labour) ya? That's good Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Togekiss 3,123 Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 The US is about to prioritize Swedish friendship and collaboration lol mark my words Baskin Robbins Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScreamQueen007 415 Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 When’s Russia going to try to annex Sweden? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScreamQueen007 415 Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 26 minutes ago, Togekiss said: The US is about to prioritize Swedish friendship and collaboration lol mark my words Sweden and the US as well as Canada and the rest of Europe already have a strong relationship. And last year NATO approved Sweden joining the alliance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supersonic 49,376 Posted January 14, 2023 Author Share Posted January 14, 2023 17 hours ago, weed said: Sweden would extract them ethically (in terms of human labour) ya? That's good Of course not, they're gonna fly in cheap labourers from abroad to exploit them, like any other European country. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Economy 52,860 Posted January 14, 2023 Share Posted January 14, 2023 On 1/13/2023 at 9:11 AM, Auralegends said: Good for Europe to be less dependent on China for the materials to make all kinds of products for renewable energy and other things. On the other side I think it's a bit hypocritical to say this will help achieve our goals for a more sustainable world (fit-for-55 proposals and so on) but at the same time we are using up a new batch of rare materials I agree it's important to shift away from just China. We have a lot of rare earths here in North America as well. I know California has some and other parts of the US and here in Canada we have a tone of it too and they are pushing to get some development so it isn't just coming out of China As for the hypocriticism it's like I always said... It's not just how we consume but also HOW MUCH we consume There's this constant retoric that if we just recycle more and have a green electric grid and electric car that it will solve global warming and ecological problems and it's simply just such a flat out like not really scientifically supported. Some of these alternative ways of doing things are PREFERABLE especially as far as global warming goes and that's arguably the most pressing environmental problem at the moment. Maybe it even makes sense to exagerate how much a green grid or electric cars will do to encourage ppl to actually go along with it rather than doing nothing But at the end of the day, we are not able to recycle everything, some materials are lost and new ones need to be precured. Electrification of grid and cats also require resources that have their own impacts on the environment. It also won't end global warming because transportation and energy don't make up all the emissions, it will just slow it down (doesn't mean we shouldn't do it but let's keep realistic perspective) At the end of the day we need to go beyond just green electricity and EVs and recycling. It's simply not gonna cut it. It's basically just a first step... #1 technologies need to keep advancing so we can find even greener ways of doing things #2 things like farming, factories like concret etc need more attention. It's not just transportation and power plants that produce emissions and focusing so much only on that will never get us to net 0 #3 we need to rethink consumption and the way capitalism promotes it. For example... This whole encourage you to buy new product and make it cheap on purpose to not last so you have to buy another one in a year just makes a lot of unnecessary garbage and consumption Legit my Grandparents have clothes from when they were in their 20s and somehow it still held together all this time. Now you buy a shirt and after 1 or 2 years it's all faded and ripped and u have to throw it out and buy a new one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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