The Swedish find of rare earth metals is described as one of the largest in Europe.
One million tonnes may be mined next to LKAB's mine in Kiruna.
- It can secure a very large part of Europe's consumption for a number of years, says Erik Jonsson, state geologist at Sweden's Geological Survey and adjunct professor at Uppsala University.
Has unique properties
He describes the earth metals as a small, limited group of chemically similar metals with very special properties.
- They are also called rare earth elements (REE) and are a group of 17 elements that are all metals.
They are important for the green transition, including for the manufacture of electric cars and wind turbines.
- But they are important in almost all other high technology as well, for example in the nuclear industry, medicine and energy production, he says.
Dependence decreases
Today's findings mean that Sweden's and Europe's dependence on imports may decrease.
- Now we have seen Putin's true face and it has made it even clearer that we should not put ourselves in a similar dependent situation with critical metals as we have done with Russian gas, says Erik Jonsson.
In the clip, he tells more about the importance of the find.