Europe's Largest Deposit of Rare Earth Metals Now 25 Percent Larger

The Northern Swedish mining company LKAB has applied for processing concession for the so-called Per Geijer deposit in Kiruna in Northern Sweden. Since the deposit was reported as Europe's largest known deposit for rare earth metals earlier this year, further investigations have been conducted. 

"A concession will entail that we can increase the mineral resources for rare earth metal oxides by 25 percent to over 1,3 million tonnes," says Jan Mostr'om, CEO of LKAB, in a press release.

If the processing concession is approved, the company can continue to develop the deposit and prepare an environmental permit application. However, this does not mean LKAB gets permission to start a mine. First, the company must go through a process of getting exclusive rights to continue investigating the mineralization.

Today, LKAB reports that the deposit contains mineral resources of 734 million tonnes of iron ore, with high iron content and more than 1,3 million tonnes of rare earth oxides on the site. When it was announced in January 2023, the deposit was already the largest rare earth metal deposit in Europe.

Today, Europe is heavily dependent on imports of rare earth metals, mainly from China.

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