A few months ago, the largest rare land in Europe was found in northern Sweden, in Kiruna. This country was already known for the largest iron mine in the world. Currently, 27.5 million tonnes of iron ore are extracted annually. The main vein of the mine, four kilometres long, has a width of 80 metres, around which hundreds of kilometres of galleries have been built. Due to the development of the Kiruna iron mine over time, the city’s bases are literally eating themselves as a result of rock drilling. As a result, in 2004 it was considered necessary to relocate the village to rebuild it a few kilometres away.

A similar development we can imagine with this new rare earth deposit. Its main rare mineral lands are praseodymium or neodymium oxides, components of electric vehicles or batteries needed to build windmills. It has been assessed that the content of the site is one million tonnes. Although the number appears large, it is a simple figure compared to global resources of 120 million tonnes. However, it is the largest site at European level and the company LKAB, which owns it, states in its press release that it is good news, not only for the company or Sweden, but also for Europe and the climate. As far as climate is concerned, this will not be the case: throughout history, the introduction of new energy sources has never ceased to use previous sources, as demonstrated by the historian of techniques and the environment Jean-Baptiste Fressoz. Consequently, it calls for rejecting false illusions about renewable energies: instead of replacing fossils with fossils, they may increase and therefore not solve the climate problem. On the contrary, at European level, the strategic value of this new mine is undeniable. European Union Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said last year that “lithium and rare earth will soon be more transparent than oil and gas”.

Collision of two models

It can be read in the document of the company LKAB that the mining operation will not start until 10-15 years. In addition to the analysis of the resource and the elaboration of the exploitation plan, they should evaluate the possible damages in the environment, considering and applying measures to prevent or compensate such damages. However, in the same document it invites the Swedish authorities to speed up the process taking into account the importance of this resource. Needless to say, the 2022 elections mean that the Swedish government has no more environmental ministry.

According to Fressoz, the consideration of climate as an argument to try to promote the medium to the background can be a strong trend in the coming decades. In fact, the Kiruna mine not only harms the city, but also the surrounding ecosystems and the traditional activities of the Samiah inhabiting it, especially the transhumance of the Renaissance. The Swedish Sami Confederation and the Gabna Sameby people’s association of snow deer breeders denounce that Sweden is uninhibited in hunting for “green” matter and makes the people of Sami invisible. This mine divides the traditional areas of alhabide, situated in a narrow step between them, and becomes narrower if the mine expands further and new means of transport are incorporated. During the twentieth century, industrial development devoured the lands of Samien, forcing to abandon some avenues of alhabide and transhumance. Karin Kvarfordt, a local spokesman, Niia Gabna Sameby, states that, apart from the alhabids, the lakes have also suffered mine damage and that no more fish can be fished. Regarding rare earths, it stresses the need to investigate other ways of obtaining material before they are unearthed, such as the reprocessing of iron ore waste that has accumulated in Kiruna for 130 years. What is green? What will stop climate change? That the extraction of iron and foreign lands from the subsoil or does not affect more ecosystems so as not to contaminate more soils?” Greta Thunberg, a climate militant, is also clear: making excessive use of fossil fuels does not mean that it begins to exploit renewables excessively. To spread this message he was in solidarity with Sami.

At what price can you free yourself from a dependency?

The Bayan Obo mine in China accounts for 60 per cent of the world ' s rare earth resource, and China is also the largest in the exploitation of these minerals, which is currently in an almost monopoly situation. A significant example is that 98% of the rare earth used in the European Union in 2021 was imported from China. Swedish Energy Minister Ebba Busch says that change is necessary because Europe is too dependent on other countries, and especially on China. In addition to these minerals, as far as fertilisers are concerned, the new Kiruna site adds the argument that, together with rare earths, it contains a quarter of the phosphorus that Europe needs, they have assessed. Last year Europe saw the need to get out of the dependence of the peoples of the outside world, that the polluting industries that for a long time provided basic resources were far from their borders: rare lands, fossil fuels, fertilizers, we imported at economic prices from countries with far more diffuse environmental standards than ours. In the city of Baotou, on the border with Mongolia, where the Bayan Obo mine is located, the Chinese Greenpeace group suspects that the level of radioactivity is 32 times higher than normal (for example 14 times in Chernobyl) and that many cancers are associated with rare earth processing.

Basically, around the project of the new Kiruna mine, two sides of sustainability collide. From the point of view of mine promoters, everything would be easier if Samie did not want to maintain his traditional lifestyle and instead would prefer the world of electric vehicles. From the point of view of the samias, industrial development remains an indirect – via climate change – or direct – threat through the mine.

While it is clear what is the most sustainable, are we prepared to accept the social disaster?