A large amount of rare soil types have been found in the Norwegian area of Telemark. This might be a turning point for the EU until now have had to look to China for these kind of ressources.
There is estimated to be 8.78 milion tons of the rare soil types which EU is interested in inside the area that have been examined. The area has been examined by the company Rare Earths Norway for the last three years. They announced their result Yesterday, 6 June 2024.
The news have created excitement among many Norwegian officials. The Norwegian Minister of Business, Cecilie Myrseth, stated the following to the news agency NTB:
“We have known for a while that Fensfeltet (the area that has been examined) was promising, but now it is definite”.
Over all there are happy reactions to the findings however, there are also certain NGO’s who speaks of caution:
“Naturvernforbundet isn’t against mining, but we are very invested in making sure that all the steps are made in a proper and gentle way,” says the Norwegian Nature protection organisation.
It is expected that these soil types will become essential in the future when producing windmills, cellphones and defense materials. This is however still a while away.
According to the company who examined the piece of land it is plausible that the rare soils will be able to cover 10 percent of EU needs by 2030.
Source: B.T.
