Already replacing Russia as the main supplier of natural gas to Europe, Norway may now become even more valuable to the Old Continent, as in the future it can dispose of a large number of strategically important metals. The Scandinavian country announced yesterday that it has discovered “significant” amounts of a wide range of metals, from copper to rare earths, on its long continental shelf in isolated areas. The deposit is significant, according to preliminary assessments by the country’s authorities, who are currently considering allowing deep-sea mining in coastal areas. But there are concerns, as the necessary mining and exploitation procedures require parliamentary approval, which is not a given. And the reason is that these are processes that burden the environment, leading to political disputes.

In its message, the company NPD (Norwegian Petroleum Directorate), which conducted the relevant studies, indicates the strategic importance of the find. As the company emphasizes, “among the metals found on the shores of the study area, magnesium, niobium, cobalt and rare earth elements are included in the list of minerals of strategic importance compiled by the European Commission.” The company does not miss the opportunity to emphasize that “expensive and expensive mining of rare metals such as neodymium and dysprosium, two rare earth metals, is extremely important for the production of magnets used in the manufacture of wind turbines and electric vehicle motors.” “.

At the same time, however, environmental organizations are asking the government to postpone all mining and exploitation not only of this particular deposit, but of any deposit on the Norwegian coast in general, until further exploration and research is done in these areas. . The object of research, according to ecologists, should be an understanding of the organisms that live on the shores and continental shelf of the country, as well as the consequences that mining can entail for these organisms. As the Norwegian Institute for Marine Research points out in an advisory letter to the authorities, “we have a great lack of knowledge” about the depths of the oceans, where species we have not yet discovered can live. NPD itself, after all, stressed in a statement that further research would be needed in areas where the disputed resources are located to determine how much of the metals could be recovered at a manageable and environmentally acceptable cost.

Recently, a deposit of rare earth elements of the same strategic importance was discovered in the Arctic part of Sweden.

According to the research, the metal deposit extends to the remote areas of the Norwegian and Greenland Seas and contains 38 million tons of copper, which is almost twice the amount of copper mined every year worldwide. It is also estimated to contain 45 million tons of zinc, which is concentrated in metal compounds of various origins known as polymetallic sulfides. It should be noted that an equally strategically important deposit of rare earth elements, the largest so far in Europe, was located in the Kiruna region on the Arctic side of Sweden and could play a decisive role in the attempt of the Old Continent to free itself from China and its almost global monopoly on this raw material.

According to the state-controlled Swedish mining group LKAB, the deposit is a major mining area containing at least one million tons of rare earth oxides. The two discoveries in the Scandinavian countries come at a time when Europe is worried about its dependence, especially on China, the world’s largest producer of rare earths, for the supply of these ores, which are mainly used to make batteries for electric vehicles and wind turbines. but also high-tech products in general.

As for NPD, since 2011 it has been collecting information on the deep seas of the Norwegian and Greenland Seas in cooperation with the University of Bergen, and since 2020 it has also joined the research of the university. Troms. Between 2018 and 2021, he carried out four missions in which he collected samples and information about the seabed and the most important deposits in the area, while mining and collecting samples were carried out at the same time. .