From the Kiruna iron ore mine, which accounts for 80% of European extraction, the Swedish Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Industry, Ebba Busch, announced, on Thursday 12 January, that raw materials were a priority for her country’s EU Council Presidency.
The minister said that the Presidency would give “high priority” to the act on raw materials that the European Commission must present at the end of March.
“The anticipated act needs to enable the supply of sustainable raw materials from both primary and secondary sources. This includes actions focusing on increased EU production, but also research efficiency, circularity and diversified global trade. We need it all now”, Ms Busch told the media, including EUROPE, recalling that the EU had invested heavily in the green transition and that raw materials were essential to it.
But the EU is dependent on importing the materials needed for this green transition. “The demand for critical raw materials is only expected to increase in the coming years. According to the Commission, demand will increase by 500% by 2030. However, China accounts for around 70% of the world’s production of metals needed to facilitate the ecological transition”, warned the minister, explaining, for example, that the EU is 100% dependent on imported lithium, which is needed for batteries.
Ms Busch warned against over-dependence, recalling that the EU had seen what came of being too dependent on Russian gas and that this could not happen in other areas.
And Sweden is not to be outdone in helping the EU to be more self-sufficient in raw materials. “The mining industry remains a key sector and we are now one of the leading metal producing countries in the EU. We are well endowed with minerals containing base metals. (...) We are at the forefront of innovation in the extractive industry, but also in the production of related technologies and equipment”, she explained.
For example, the Swedish state-owned company that manages the Kiruna mine, LKAB, announced, on 12 January, that it had identified large deposits of rare earths in the Kiruna region exceeding 1 million tonnes of oxides, the largest known deposit of this type in Europe. According to LKAB’s President and CEO Jan Moström, this deposit could “become a significant building block for producing the critical raw materials that are absolutely crucial to enable the green transition”. For LKAB, no rare earth elements are currently being mined in Europe.
LKAB, which is working on the exploitation of its mining waste, notably to extract phosphorus, is also working on greener extraction, participating in the HYBRIT project, which aims to develop a fossil-free value chain for iron and steel production using fossil-free electricity and hydrogen. The project has received €143 million in support from the EU’s Innovation Fund. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)