The Danish Novo Nordisk the creators of [Semaglutides](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaglutide?wprov=sfti1#Economics) (aka Ozempic..etc) is the most valuable company in the EU. That said what Norway has done with their economy started with hydroelectric generation that allowed them to export more of their hydrocarbon resources than they otherwise would have.
This comment prompted me to look up the highest point in Denmark. My favourite part is the caption of the picture:
“Møllehøj seen from the tower on Ejer Bavnehøj; the highest point is obscured by the farm buildings.”
The farm buildings are one story tall.
That point is actually somewhat recently discovered. It’s a small hill behind a barn in central Jutland, which is already a somewhat elevated area.
The traditional highest point is Himmelbjerget, “Sky Mountain”, which is also, well, a hill…. 147 m/482 ft elevation. But, it’s against a lake, [so it is more visually impressive](https://img.atlasobscura.com/THQ7xvpgbgVI7n0G9TErZ9S-VTOCqOkpv8BNgIJ31GE/rs:fill:780:520:1/g:ce/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL3BsYWNl/X2ltYWdlcy9IaW1t/ZWxiamVyZ2V0XzIw/MDVfMC5qcGc.jpg).
It’s a silly place.
I'm from Vancouver and I could not contain my laughter when the boat guide in Copenhagen pointed out your "mountain" and the ski hill on the incinerator. Good stuff
You got nothing to worry about with businesses like Novo Nordisk. In Finland we sold or squandered most of our profitable companies and sold natural monopolies to foreign private equity.
Hillbillies who save their resource wealth in the bank that used for all their peoples needs. They sound like the smartest entrepreneurs in the world, they save their money rather than squander it like our corrupt politicians in Australia. They deserve a good governance gold medal unlike the PIG countries who sponge off other countries and waste tax payers money.
I mean most nation's economies drastically impact one another so I'm not sure that's necessarily indicative of the faults being entirely on Norway. Honestly most nations are going to have really hard times in the coming years anyway, longterm planning will make a huge difference and far too many nations aren't doing that.
Norway did not model it solely off of Alberta. Their culture includes helping one another out. Read how their logging used to operate. How each village’s success depended on the next village. They hoard their wealth for the better and future of themselves and their country.
An Iraqi exile was key to get Norway to create its oil fund.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/iraqi-farouk-al-kasim-behind-norway-oil-fund-that-is-envy-of-world-1.2604105
Like parts of Canada and the United States, Norway has a very lucrative oil and gas industry. But unlike Alberta and Alaska, Norway chose not to use its resource wealth immediately to pay for hefty tax cuts or social programs. Instead, the Scandinavian country squirrelled its money away in a fund for future generations, a decision that is paying enormous social dividends.
Today, less than 25 years since its inception, that nest egg has grown into the world's most valuable sovereign wealth fund, worth about $850 billion – more than $165,000 per Norwegian citizen, according to an SWF Institute report. It is the envy of the world, funding initiatives ranging from infrastructure improvements and green energy projects to public pensions.
Meanwhile, the Alberta Heritage Fund, which is 14 years older, is worth about $17 billion. The Alaska Permanent Fund sits at $50 billion. Even combined, they represent a fraction of the wealth Norway has amassed, and which it will be able to draw on long after its oilfields run dry.
And perhaps most remarkable of all, a large chunk of the credit for Norway's phenomenal success with its oil fund belongs to a geologist from Iraq.
It was 1968, and Farouk al-Kasim was struggling with an important decision that would change his life, and that of his young family. What he didn't know at the time was that it would have such a profound impact on Norway's future as well.
...
It is kind of interesting thought. Historically we are basically a bunch of farmers, fishermen and sailors. We have never had a nobility, like Sweden and many other countries. Even though we have a monarchy, but it pretty much stops there. It has probably played a role where we have been pretty smart with our resources.
I think its wonderful that rare earth metal sources were found in two cool countries with strong democratic foundation. It's good for the world. With Norway and Sweden being neighbors I hope to see sharing of expertise and building a strong workforce. Definitely a reason to celebrate!
Contrary to the name, they're not that hard to find when you look for them, but deposits are usually very low concentration and mixed with lots of stuff you aren't looking for (including toxic or radioactive materials), thus expensive and dirty to process. The US used to produce more, but stopped because it was cheaper to let China do it. Of course, that calculus is changing now with increased demand and geopolitical tensions.
This deposit being in an arctic location sounds promising, since one major reason that people don't develop their rare earth deposits is ecological concerns, and there may be fewer of those in a sparsely inhabited tundra area. Some of the more promising deposits in North America are in arid desert regions of the Western US, or tundra in the Canadian North, for similar reasons.
I mean wasn't there an article a year ago or so with a huge rare earth deposit being found in Sweden as well?
Quick search: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/18/1187075988/europe-rare-earth-sweden
So they aren't too badly.
>These elements are crucial for manufacturing batteries, wind turbine generators, and military equipment. Currently, China dominates the supply of these metals.
Nice. Less reliance on China.
China dominates the supply because rare earths are a PITA to mine and they are the only ones that bother to.
Rare earths are not rare at all and they are actually very common. They are called rare because of where they fall on the periodic table.
No, it's because rare earths are a PITA to separate and refine. They're all chemically similar, and most are utterly useless unless refined to literally 100% pure. Most American expertise in the refining disappeared decades ago. Maybe there's an outside chance you could get a Western chemicals company like Bayer to build a refining plant.
Depends if they're going to sell the mining rights to a Chinese company.
Pretty sure there was another rare metal deposit found in the past few years in Norway (I think it was Norway, it was another Scandinavian country for sure. It might be the one mentioned in the article, which was in Sweden) where there is an ongoing "battle" going on to get rights to mine there.
I think the find you are referring to is from last year where Norwegian mining company Norge Mining found an estimated 70 billion metric tons of phosphate deposits alongside a large deposit of titanium in Helleland in the south-west of Norway. There’s an ongoing discussion on how to mine the deposit while having minimum impact on the existing farmlands and the surrounding environment. I don’t think there’s a battle for mining rights with foreign actors.
Edit: typos
Not at all how Norway operates, so I wouldn’t expect it to happen.
They have previously leased rights to foreign companies for oil, but they get it back eventually, and foreign companies are required to not only pay for the construction of mining platforms, but also hire Norwegians, so Norwegians can learn the technology.
Now they are experts in that field, the state owns most of the oil, and are incredibly wealthy as they continually re-invest their earnings back into the sovereign wealth fund + by law they can only spend 3% of it a year.
Honestly, a country to envy.
Not a chance we will sell the mining rights to a Chinese company. It is not how it works here. We will probably do something similiar with what we did with the oil. We will probably invite foreign companies, but we will tax the shit out of the income, and in combination establish a state owned company that will do the mining.
Y’all are honestly galaxy brained, I want you to know that. Just such a big brain move to propel your country into futureproofing themselves; if only our politicians in Canada had 1/10th of your foresight and care for our people, we’d be in a much better position.
Greenland is associated with Denmark, not Norway. Greenland is also not a country but an over seas territory :)
Just putting it out there, if Greenland was the answer.
The thing is plenty of REM sources exist outside of China, the problem is the Chinese undercut all the other sources by building the cheapest most unsafe and polluting refineries they could. Sources in Norway won't change that.
The worlds green revolution is centred on a massive lake of toxic waste that's slowly dries up then get's carried miles from Baotou by the wind.
It's not just the regulatory differences. There's also a technology and experience advantage that the Chinese have in processing REM. That goes a long way to why it's cheaper.
And of course that superior REM industry loops back into battery tech and into EVs. China has price superiority because of that integrated supply chain.
I have read that lots of deposits found outside china. Even in Europe there are a few. The problem is that nobody wants to dig it up. One of the reasons is that it’s not healthy.
Out of the three unprospected North Sea areas that Sweden was offered in exchange only one turned out to have gas, and none of them had oil.[^(\[2\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_Deal#cite_note-2)
Rare earths aren't actually very rare. They are all over the place, though not always in great concentrations.
China has developed the industry to become the market leader and it takes some effort to build the necessary extraction facilities etc. But other countries could do it too fairly easily if prices rocketed or China started refusing to export.
Yeah their sovereign wealth fun is one of the best examples of a non corrupt good governance program that helps the nation and their people.
Unlike here in Australia where our politicians give away our resources for pittance that earns the least royalties in the world because they receive donations in a corrupt way from resource companies.
Australia would be the richest people in the world if our politicians were not so corrupt and put all our resource wealth earning into a sovereign wealth fund that benefits us all. Can you believe this, our government gives away 50% of our gas resource for free and we receive less royalties for the same resources than the wealthy Arab countries. Yet here in Australia we don't get free university, dental and now they are starting to cut back on free healthcare all because of our corrupt and incompetent politicians. In the meantime Norway looks after its people from their sovereign wealth fund that is funded from their resource wealth!
And new zealand. So many assets been sold off buy governments. No future planning in anything to actually grow the country, like science, technology etc.
It's sad how so many countries sell their assets and resources for a quick buck and end up with more money being siphoned off overseas. New Zealand Bad for it
Mate, our government, that is NOT in the EU, does EVERYTHING in their power to appease them. They already fucked whole nation over by connecting us to EUs energy market (thus surging energy prices by 100-1000% percent in the last two years). Typical cost of hydroproduced electricity is 20-30 øre/kwh. Right after we got connected to EUs market, and Putin invaded, we got prices of 600-1000 øre/kwh in some peak hours. Now, its more stable around 100-150øre/kwh,but its still a double/tripple of the price we've had for a decade.
Right after they spent whole nations tax money to build hydroplants and its been "paid off", they remove the "cheap electricity" carrot. After several generations have invested in it to get what was promised.
I bet your ass they'll sell this to some foreign investors, that don't pay local tax.
We got quite many sane laws, sure, but we also got some quite society changing fucked up laws and decisions too.
As a Norwegian, I **never** buy salmon. The last time I ate that was gravlax over 15 years ago at my grandmother's funeral.
100% of that industry is thoroughly corrupt and just a billionaire fast-tracking scheme. In addition to that they deliberately destroy the ecobalance of the fjords with fish-shit, feed debris and antibiotics and the animal "welfare" is, as expected, utterly atrocious with sick and dying fish swimming around with open sores.
For reference the premium Salma loin fillets cost $25-30 per two pounds (approx. kilogram) locally. The government sucked China's dick for years after the Nobel Peace Prize debacle and finally were let back into the Chinese good graces for the salmon export deal worth billions annually.
Throughout our history, the greater European powers have typically needed something we can sell them. Fish, timber, fertilizer, aluminium, hydropower, oil and now (in 10 years or something maybe) rare metals.
**Europe’s largest deposits of rare earth metals have been discovered in the Telemark region of Norway, the Rare Earths Norway (REN) mining company announced on Thursday.**
>The company revealed that the new deposits found in the Nome municipality, 150 kilometers southwest of Oslo, contain an estimated 8.78 million tons of rare earth metals, such as neodymium and praseodymium oxide.
>These elements are crucial for manufacturing batteries, wind turbine generators, and military equipment. Currently, China dominates the supply of these metals.
>REN, which has been conducting drilling operations for the past three years, stated it could commence mining by 2030, aiming to meet 10% of the increasing demand for rare earth metals. REN’s CEO, Alf Reistad, highlighted the significance of this discovery by suggesting that Norwegian metals might become more valuable to Europe than the country’s exported gas.
>This Norwegian discovery surpasses a similar find in Kiruna, northern Sweden, made in 2023, which was previously considered the largest in Europe. The Swedish discovery had sparked a debate about speeding up the complex environmental permitting process required to open a new mine and influenced the creation of the EU’s strategy on critical metals.
>Rare earth metals comprise a group of 17 elements, including lanthanum, praseodymium, neodymium, and lutetium.
So the article isn't calling lithium or cobalt a rare earth metal since it does mention actual rare earths as the metals that they found. Which is nice as that'sand annoying common mistake. But then it mentions batteries. I'm not aware of batteries using these metals, at least no mainstream chemistry.
Correct me if I’m wrong but ‘rare earth metals’ aren’t so rare. The constraint is mining them without destroying the environment. China doesn’t adhere to their own environment laws or they aren’t a constraint. There are more countries with fast reserves like Canada for example but mining them is so detrimental to the environment that it’s costly to do business there. When the costs are higher than other suppliers (because they don’t have to factor in the destruction) businesses can’t compete so there’s too little incentive to start mining.
Environmental laws are there for a reason so either tax polluting (import) metals accordingly to create a equal playing field, subsidise your own production or a combination of both.
You're correct! Rare earth elements (REEs) are not rare, economic deposits of REEs are.
I think you're broadly right subsequent to that too: there's different types of REE deposits, China has had access to a lot of ion adsorption clay deposits. These deposits were REE-rich rock that was extensively weathered (to clays) and consequently are relatively easy to process (bar environmental consideration, perhaps). The ease of processing of such deposits is notable because it enables illegal (as well as "artisanal") mining, this was happening extensively in China and has been well documented as a problem. I cannot recall the estimated proportion (or in what years) but I think there was a period where most of Chinese REEs were consequent of illegal operations.
Unsurprisingly, illegal and artisanal mining is not too worried about health and safety or the environment. I think at present, for example, there are closed underground(!) mines in South Africa which have been taken up by gangs, who are using rudimentary mining methods and practices; another well known example would be artisanal gold mining in Africa. Anyway, for ion adsorption clays, REEs were extracted with leaching, such as heap leaching where the ore is in a pile, or, alternatively, where the leachate is pumped directly into the ground. The runoff was bad for agriculture and water quality, and often caused landslides. I can't give an approximation to scale, sorry, but it's not small. Illegal mining also cherry picks—extracting the most readily available REEs (or resource in general): this is harmful because once that is taken, the overall economic viability of the deposit likely drops to a point where it is not worth mining; typically, legal mining operations are concerned about the lifespan of the deposit, this might be partially a legal thing but I think it's also a long term business view.
Another blurring of this, regarding China (and probably plenty of other places), is the legal system, law enforcement, and bribery, especially at a mine scale but also at a market scale. I'm really pushing my memory at this point, sorry.
As a side note, and assuming my memory is somewhat accurate on the above, this information would be \~4-7 years old, which, I think, is quite old. At that time, the west was concerned over the lack of economic REE available to them (specifically, ion adsorption clays): I don't know if other more-commonly found deposits are now broadly economic due to either technology, market forces or both. Thanks.
Rare earths are nothing but rare. Extracting and purifying them is the big issue. Good news that we have more alternatives, now let's make the whole process less toxic for humans and nature.
Yeah, but what about mining it? Because of people's protests and such.
Over here, they're (re)surveying an old mining site that closed around 1890, and found ample enough deposits of zinc and lead to be worthwhile to start a new operation. For batteries and all that.
Of course being in the middle of Europe, everyone and their dog is now bitching up a storm against that project. I mean, everyone profits of modern life and the tech it brings, so long the materials for it are dug up elsewhere.
Last year:
https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/22982-significant-deposit-of-rare-earth-metals-discovered-in-finnish-lapland.html
Just here to say that I come from not far away from that place, and this mining operation till 1000% not happen before 2030, if at all. I don\`t think you are aware of how powerful the voice of the farming/district/environmental party is in Norway. And things take aaaages to come to fruitation in general. It is just not going to happen unless there is a new government with dollar signs in their eyes.
The US is already rich in minerals. Its already restarted an rare earth metal mine years ago and now is second in production behind China. Rare earth minerals are important in the defense industry so US will take it seriously.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/270277/mining-of-rare-earths-by-country/
This is pretty good really. Makes it harder for China to leverage theirs. I lot of the EV push etc comes from stuff mined and made in China. They git a pretty good share and potential influence with it atm
Now instead of handing out teslas to their people like Halloween candy they will be handing out Rolls Royce’s. I also somehow doubt that foreign governments will work their way in and exploit children to mine the metals.
Nice. Then the Thorium will be dug up along with the rare earth metals. It contains 10-100 times more energy than all oil and gas in the North Sea.
We just need a Thorium Reactor
Can’t wait for pseudogreenies complain about child labour and environmental damage from mining these in third world countries and modern mine never being setup… thus pushing even more demand from poor sources further exacerbating issue…
First oil, then phosphates, now rare earth metals. Sweden says its like watching their hillbilly cousins win the lottery three times in a row.
And then there is us poor Danes that celebrate our highest point being a hill
There's always higher hills over in Greenland
Faroe Island seems pretty mountainous as well.
Eh, Faroe is far o-way.
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Most of them are smaller than a hill.
Hill sized pastries seem like more of a US or UK thing. Yes Brits, you're about as fat as us now!
I'll have you know I'm quite svelte.
For now.
Regular, yes. Danish? Not always.
Fun fact, in Danish they're called wienerbrød because they're fashioned after the Viennese pastries.
Rest of Scandinavia, too.
If only I could remember what they’re called..
The blue danish butter cookie tins.
The Danish Novo Nordisk the creators of [Semaglutides](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaglutide?wprov=sfti1#Economics) (aka Ozempic..etc) is the most valuable company in the EU. That said what Norway has done with their economy started with hydroelectric generation that allowed them to export more of their hydrocarbon resources than they otherwise would have.
Right, so Denmark had to be smart and put in the workd to come out ahead, while Norway just had to look nice and pretty!
Well, gotta say I wasn’t expecting Denmark’s most notable modern export to be diabetes medications.
Norway owns 1.87% of Novo Nordisk.
This comment prompted me to look up the highest point in Denmark. My favourite part is the caption of the picture: “Møllehøj seen from the tower on Ejer Bavnehøj; the highest point is obscured by the farm buildings.” The farm buildings are one story tall.
That point is actually somewhat recently discovered. It’s a small hill behind a barn in central Jutland, which is already a somewhat elevated area. The traditional highest point is Himmelbjerget, “Sky Mountain”, which is also, well, a hill…. 147 m/482 ft elevation. But, it’s against a lake, [so it is more visually impressive](https://img.atlasobscura.com/THQ7xvpgbgVI7n0G9TErZ9S-VTOCqOkpv8BNgIJ31GE/rs:fill:780:520:1/g:ce/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL3BsYWNl/X2ltYWdlcy9IaW1t/ZWxiamVyZ2V0XzIw/MDVfMC5qcGc.jpg). It’s a silly place.
Y'all got Novo Nordisk
WE BUILT NOVO NORDISK, WITH OUR BARE HANDS, IN A CAVE!
Made of … Norwegian wood I presume?
Until their patents run out. Then we'll be poor. :(
If it hadn’t been for that fucking Napoleon all that oil and minerals would be ours!
Probably some rare earth in there eh? Maybe look in your fish. Probably some heavy metals at least.
You guys have ozempic and wegovy, America will keep your BNP up no problem.
I'm from Vancouver and I could not contain my laughter when the boat guide in Copenhagen pointed out your "mountain" and the ski hill on the incinerator. Good stuff
At least you have cool neighbors down south, just don’t get too comfy or we rebuild the Dänenwall
Haven't forgiven you for invading us. Why do you think we put up border checkpoints at your border but not Sweden.
You got nothing to worry about with businesses like Novo Nordisk. In Finland we sold or squandered most of our profitable companies and sold natural monopolies to foreign private equity.
You have Lego's and Astralis, whachu complaining about?
Hillbillies who save their resource wealth in the bank that used for all their peoples needs. They sound like the smartest entrepreneurs in the world, they save their money rather than squander it like our corrupt politicians in Australia. They deserve a good governance gold medal unlike the PIG countries who sponge off other countries and waste tax payers money.
Norway has much better future planning and running than other countries
Our currency keeps plummeting though. :/
I mean most nation's economies drastically impact one another so I'm not sure that's necessarily indicative of the faults being entirely on Norway. Honestly most nations are going to have really hard times in the coming years anyway, longterm planning will make a huge difference and far too many nations aren't doing that.
You had the opportunity to join the EU, doors are still open 🙃
Fishing rights within the EEZ of Norway is the reason they aren't joining the EU.
Same for Faroe Islands
I’m good tbh
also the best at slaughtering whales
And Alberta who Norway modeled it after. We're a bunch of right wing rednecks here so it makes sense they squandered it.
Norway did not model it solely off of Alberta. Their culture includes helping one another out. Read how their logging used to operate. How each village’s success depended on the next village. They hoard their wealth for the better and future of themselves and their country.
They modelled thier fund directly on Alberta's. How they didn't squander it after is what you're talking about.
Haha oh I see!
An Iraqi exile was key to get Norway to create its oil fund. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/iraqi-farouk-al-kasim-behind-norway-oil-fund-that-is-envy-of-world-1.2604105 Like parts of Canada and the United States, Norway has a very lucrative oil and gas industry. But unlike Alberta and Alaska, Norway chose not to use its resource wealth immediately to pay for hefty tax cuts or social programs. Instead, the Scandinavian country squirrelled its money away in a fund for future generations, a decision that is paying enormous social dividends. Today, less than 25 years since its inception, that nest egg has grown into the world's most valuable sovereign wealth fund, worth about $850 billion – more than $165,000 per Norwegian citizen, according to an SWF Institute report. It is the envy of the world, funding initiatives ranging from infrastructure improvements and green energy projects to public pensions. Meanwhile, the Alberta Heritage Fund, which is 14 years older, is worth about $17 billion. The Alaska Permanent Fund sits at $50 billion. Even combined, they represent a fraction of the wealth Norway has amassed, and which it will be able to draw on long after its oilfields run dry. And perhaps most remarkable of all, a large chunk of the credit for Norway's phenomenal success with its oil fund belongs to a geologist from Iraq. It was 1968, and Farouk al-Kasim was struggling with an important decision that would change his life, and that of his young family. What he didn't know at the time was that it would have such a profound impact on Norway's future as well. ...
Yeah but you're OUR right wing rednecks who squandered it. Much love from Ontario 😍
It is kind of interesting thought. Historically we are basically a bunch of farmers, fishermen and sailors. We have never had a nobility, like Sweden and many other countries. Even though we have a monarchy, but it pretty much stops there. It has probably played a role where we have been pretty smart with our resources.
We Swedes have found our deposit last year. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64253708
I think its wonderful that rare earth metal sources were found in two cool countries with strong democratic foundation. It's good for the world. With Norway and Sweden being neighbors I hope to see sharing of expertise and building a strong workforce. Definitely a reason to celebrate!
Contrary to the name, they're not that hard to find when you look for them, but deposits are usually very low concentration and mixed with lots of stuff you aren't looking for (including toxic or radioactive materials), thus expensive and dirty to process. The US used to produce more, but stopped because it was cheaper to let China do it. Of course, that calculus is changing now with increased demand and geopolitical tensions. This deposit being in an arctic location sounds promising, since one major reason that people don't develop their rare earth deposits is ecological concerns, and there may be fewer of those in a sparsely inhabited tundra area. Some of the more promising deposits in North America are in arid desert regions of the Western US, or tundra in the Canadian North, for similar reasons.
It's good for us to have choices and reduce reliance on one country.
They're the hooch drinking, cousin loving hillbillies. (With love) We're the rich and disturbed neighbors.
We’re the hillbillies now..
What’s worse is they (the cousin hillbilly) basically offered to split the oil profits for a part of Volvo back then, and we (Swedes) turned em down.
Calling Norwegians hillbilly's while swedes move over to wait their tables is hilarious.
I mean wasn't there an article a year ago or so with a huge rare earth deposit being found in Sweden as well? Quick search: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/18/1187075988/europe-rare-earth-sweden So they aren't too badly.
The world will benefit from the rare earth deposits find for sure, that was one of the largest threats that China has is to withhold these metals.
>These elements are crucial for manufacturing batteries, wind turbine generators, and military equipment. Currently, China dominates the supply of these metals. Nice. Less reliance on China.
China dominates the supply because rare earths are a PITA to mine and they are the only ones that bother to. Rare earths are not rare at all and they are actually very common. They are called rare because of where they fall on the periodic table.
No, it's because rare earths are a PITA to separate and refine. They're all chemically similar, and most are utterly useless unless refined to literally 100% pure. Most American expertise in the refining disappeared decades ago. Maybe there's an outside chance you could get a Western chemicals company like Bayer to build a refining plant.
Depends if they're going to sell the mining rights to a Chinese company. Pretty sure there was another rare metal deposit found in the past few years in Norway (I think it was Norway, it was another Scandinavian country for sure. It might be the one mentioned in the article, which was in Sweden) where there is an ongoing "battle" going on to get rights to mine there.
I think the find you are referring to is from last year where Norwegian mining company Norge Mining found an estimated 70 billion metric tons of phosphate deposits alongside a large deposit of titanium in Helleland in the south-west of Norway. There’s an ongoing discussion on how to mine the deposit while having minimum impact on the existing farmlands and the surrounding environment. I don’t think there’s a battle for mining rights with foreign actors. Edit: typos
Not at all how Norway operates, so I wouldn’t expect it to happen. They have previously leased rights to foreign companies for oil, but they get it back eventually, and foreign companies are required to not only pay for the construction of mining platforms, but also hire Norwegians, so Norwegians can learn the technology. Now they are experts in that field, the state owns most of the oil, and are incredibly wealthy as they continually re-invest their earnings back into the sovereign wealth fund + by law they can only spend 3% of it a year. Honestly, a country to envy.
Not a chance we will sell the mining rights to a Chinese company. It is not how it works here. We will probably do something similiar with what we did with the oil. We will probably invite foreign companies, but we will tax the shit out of the income, and in combination establish a state owned company that will do the mining.
Y’all are honestly galaxy brained, I want you to know that. Just such a big brain move to propel your country into futureproofing themselves; if only our politicians in Canada had 1/10th of your foresight and care for our people, we’d be in a much better position.
It was Greenland. (?)
Greenland is associated with Denmark, not Norway. Greenland is also not a country but an over seas territory :) Just putting it out there, if Greenland was the answer.
Greenland is in fact a country :-) they are an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Greenland
and the Kingdom of Denmark also contains the seperate country of Denmark. That is how Denmark is in the EU, but Greenland isn't.
Greenland is a country on its own. But rely on money from denmark.
The thing is plenty of REM sources exist outside of China, the problem is the Chinese undercut all the other sources by building the cheapest most unsafe and polluting refineries they could. Sources in Norway won't change that. The worlds green revolution is centred on a massive lake of toxic waste that's slowly dries up then get's carried miles from Baotou by the wind.
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Yea they are willing to do the work and damage to get it while so many others want Less environmental damage
This one is about that lake: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150402-the-worst-place-on-earth
And it's only gotten bigger since that report.
It's not just the regulatory differences. There's also a technology and experience advantage that the Chinese have in processing REM. That goes a long way to why it's cheaper. And of course that superior REM industry loops back into battery tech and into EVs. China has price superiority because of that integrated supply chain.
I have read that lots of deposits found outside china. Even in Europe there are a few. The problem is that nobody wants to dig it up. One of the reasons is that it’s not healthy.
putler tomorrow: well, Norway sort of always been russian historical land, blah-blah, brotherly nation lives there but they are russians too
Norway has all the cool stuff.
*[seethes in Swedish]*
Is it not enough to have meatballs? Must you crave the whole world?
[Sweden blew their chance to get rich on oil.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_Deal?wprov=sfla1)
>Out of the three unprospected North Sea areas that Sweden was offered in exchange only one turned out to have gas, and none of them had oil.
Out of the three unprospected North Sea areas that Sweden was offered in exchange only one turned out to have gas, and none of them had oil.[^(\[2\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_Deal#cite_note-2)
I did not knew that chinese firm owns Volvo now.
We also found a large rare metal site but of course Norway then had to discover something bigger.
Time to channel your inner Charles XII and do what must be done.
Ya know what? It might be time for the second Swedish dominance period soon!
I think what makes Norway neat is their relative lack of Swedes. They really have their neighbour beat on that one.
Sweden has a huge rare earth deposit that was found like 2 years ago as well.
And I remembered thinking, "HA, screw you Norway with your oil that nobody wants when the rest of us turn to green energy!". The turntables...
So much for loving thy neighbor...
Rare earths aren't actually very rare. They are all over the place, though not always in great concentrations. China has developed the industry to become the market leader and it takes some effort to build the necessary extraction facilities etc. But other countries could do it too fairly easily if prices rocketed or China started refusing to export.
You guys are better at hockey though.
But Norway dominates almost all other winter sports.
Is when you just sit in silence and sip your coffee?
Norway is where God stashes his most valuable resources. Because there's norway anyone could find them.
Thanks dad
Maritime, son
Yeah their sovereign wealth fun is one of the best examples of a non corrupt good governance program that helps the nation and their people. Unlike here in Australia where our politicians give away our resources for pittance that earns the least royalties in the world because they receive donations in a corrupt way from resource companies. Australia would be the richest people in the world if our politicians were not so corrupt and put all our resource wealth earning into a sovereign wealth fund that benefits us all. Can you believe this, our government gives away 50% of our gas resource for free and we receive less royalties for the same resources than the wealthy Arab countries. Yet here in Australia we don't get free university, dental and now they are starting to cut back on free healthcare all because of our corrupt and incompetent politicians. In the meantime Norway looks after its people from their sovereign wealth fund that is funded from their resource wealth!
Noways done really well. I hope they keep it ip and don't let outside forces influence them to much and worsen themselves
Canada tried to create a sovereign wealth fund for our oil, then the Conservatives blew it up, and it's why the name Trudeau is so hated in Alberta.
If you keep voting for them you only have yourselves to blame
Please don't tell Russia
It all started with the fjords..
Because Norway follows good values.
As if they were not rich enough 😀
Yeah, *no way* they’re getting this too!
Another boost for the sovereign wealth fund. If this was the UK the minister for energy would have sold it to his boarding school mate for forty quid.
I think we have that same minister and his mate here in Australia.
40 quid AND environmental regulation exceptions if it was Australia
I'd at least have some respect if he also asked for a go on the wife as well
And new zealand. So many assets been sold off buy governments. No future planning in anything to actually grow the country, like science, technology etc.
Norway spawned in a good location
We specced for lategame B)
Im glad its in norway. They wont be dumb as our politicians in austria… like giving a large lithium mine for free to australia.
It's sad how so many countries sell their assets and resources for a quick buck and end up with more money being siphoned off overseas. New Zealand Bad for it
Mate, our government, that is NOT in the EU, does EVERYTHING in their power to appease them. They already fucked whole nation over by connecting us to EUs energy market (thus surging energy prices by 100-1000% percent in the last two years). Typical cost of hydroproduced electricity is 20-30 øre/kwh. Right after we got connected to EUs market, and Putin invaded, we got prices of 600-1000 øre/kwh in some peak hours. Now, its more stable around 100-150øre/kwh,but its still a double/tripple of the price we've had for a decade. Right after they spent whole nations tax money to build hydroplants and its been "paid off", they remove the "cheap electricity" carrot. After several generations have invested in it to get what was promised. I bet your ass they'll sell this to some foreign investors, that don't pay local tax. We got quite many sane laws, sure, but we also got some quite society changing fucked up laws and decisions too.
of course.. oil and minerals.. is there a better combo?
Also fish, timber, hydro power and relatively sane laws and regulations.
FYI: Their fish farms are a disaster -- like all fish farms.
I don't like them. The quality and quantity of fish near my cabin has gotten a lot worse after the number of fish farms in the area increased.
As a Norwegian, I **never** buy salmon. The last time I ate that was gravlax over 15 years ago at my grandmother's funeral. 100% of that industry is thoroughly corrupt and just a billionaire fast-tracking scheme. In addition to that they deliberately destroy the ecobalance of the fjords with fish-shit, feed debris and antibiotics and the animal "welfare" is, as expected, utterly atrocious with sick and dying fish swimming around with open sores. For reference the premium Salma loin fillets cost $25-30 per two pounds (approx. kilogram) locally. The government sucked China's dick for years after the Nobel Peace Prize debacle and finally were let back into the Chinese good graces for the salmon export deal worth billions annually.
Throughout our history, the greater European powers have typically needed something we can sell them. Fish, timber, fertilizer, aluminium, hydropower, oil and now (in 10 years or something maybe) rare metals.
**Europe’s largest deposits of rare earth metals have been discovered in the Telemark region of Norway, the Rare Earths Norway (REN) mining company announced on Thursday.** >The company revealed that the new deposits found in the Nome municipality, 150 kilometers southwest of Oslo, contain an estimated 8.78 million tons of rare earth metals, such as neodymium and praseodymium oxide. >These elements are crucial for manufacturing batteries, wind turbine generators, and military equipment. Currently, China dominates the supply of these metals. >REN, which has been conducting drilling operations for the past three years, stated it could commence mining by 2030, aiming to meet 10% of the increasing demand for rare earth metals. REN’s CEO, Alf Reistad, highlighted the significance of this discovery by suggesting that Norwegian metals might become more valuable to Europe than the country’s exported gas. >This Norwegian discovery surpasses a similar find in Kiruna, northern Sweden, made in 2023, which was previously considered the largest in Europe. The Swedish discovery had sparked a debate about speeding up the complex environmental permitting process required to open a new mine and influenced the creation of the EU’s strategy on critical metals. >Rare earth metals comprise a group of 17 elements, including lanthanum, praseodymium, neodymium, and lutetium.
So the article isn't calling lithium or cobalt a rare earth metal since it does mention actual rare earths as the metals that they found. Which is nice as that'sand annoying common mistake. But then it mentions batteries. I'm not aware of batteries using these metals, at least no mainstream chemistry.
Thank god, Norway finally has access to some natural resources.
Wasn't there one in Sweden too recently?
Yeah, like 2 years ago it was found in Kiruna
Ofc it's in Norway, motherfuckers couldn't get more lucky.
Ok... Guys... How long until Russia finds nazis in Norway?
Russia: Norway has long had historical russian heritage.
Russia: Europe’s largest Nazi assembly discovered in Norway. We must liberate and de-nazify the country.
"Special mining operation"
Correct me if I’m wrong but ‘rare earth metals’ aren’t so rare. The constraint is mining them without destroying the environment. China doesn’t adhere to their own environment laws or they aren’t a constraint. There are more countries with fast reserves like Canada for example but mining them is so detrimental to the environment that it’s costly to do business there. When the costs are higher than other suppliers (because they don’t have to factor in the destruction) businesses can’t compete so there’s too little incentive to start mining. Environmental laws are there for a reason so either tax polluting (import) metals accordingly to create a equal playing field, subsidise your own production or a combination of both.
You're correct! Rare earth elements (REEs) are not rare, economic deposits of REEs are. I think you're broadly right subsequent to that too: there's different types of REE deposits, China has had access to a lot of ion adsorption clay deposits. These deposits were REE-rich rock that was extensively weathered (to clays) and consequently are relatively easy to process (bar environmental consideration, perhaps). The ease of processing of such deposits is notable because it enables illegal (as well as "artisanal") mining, this was happening extensively in China and has been well documented as a problem. I cannot recall the estimated proportion (or in what years) but I think there was a period where most of Chinese REEs were consequent of illegal operations. Unsurprisingly, illegal and artisanal mining is not too worried about health and safety or the environment. I think at present, for example, there are closed underground(!) mines in South Africa which have been taken up by gangs, who are using rudimentary mining methods and practices; another well known example would be artisanal gold mining in Africa. Anyway, for ion adsorption clays, REEs were extracted with leaching, such as heap leaching where the ore is in a pile, or, alternatively, where the leachate is pumped directly into the ground. The runoff was bad for agriculture and water quality, and often caused landslides. I can't give an approximation to scale, sorry, but it's not small. Illegal mining also cherry picks—extracting the most readily available REEs (or resource in general): this is harmful because once that is taken, the overall economic viability of the deposit likely drops to a point where it is not worth mining; typically, legal mining operations are concerned about the lifespan of the deposit, this might be partially a legal thing but I think it's also a long term business view. Another blurring of this, regarding China (and probably plenty of other places), is the legal system, law enforcement, and bribery, especially at a mine scale but also at a market scale. I'm really pushing my memory at this point, sorry. As a side note, and assuming my memory is somewhat accurate on the above, this information would be \~4-7 years old, which, I think, is quite old. At that time, the west was concerned over the lack of economic REE available to them (specifically, ion adsorption clays): I don't know if other more-commonly found deposits are now broadly economic due to either technology, market forces or both. Thanks.
Not that surprising considering that so many rare earth metals were first discovered in Sweden (cf Ytterby)
Cool
Norway keeps wining at resources RNG, oil first, now rare earth metals.
Rare earths are nothing but rare. Extracting and purifying them is the big issue. Good news that we have more alternatives, now let's make the whole process less toxic for humans and nature.
...Norway again? Guess I know where I'm moving when The Netherlands becomes Atlantis.
Every one of you Dutch people are welcome when that day comes. Just bring the ASML-tech with you and we are all good.
Sorry, best I can do is a wooden shoe filled with weed, and (relatively) affordable alcohol
It's better than nothing
As a Norwegain I welcome your weed
Woohoo, finally less dependence on China.
Odin's favourite country it seems
Man Norway just keeps winning…
Going to be tragic if it’s on any important ecosystems for climate or Saami land
Do they need some....^Freedom?
Yeah, but what about mining it? Because of people's protests and such. Over here, they're (re)surveying an old mining site that closed around 1890, and found ample enough deposits of zinc and lead to be worthwhile to start a new operation. For batteries and all that. Of course being in the middle of Europe, everyone and their dog is now bitching up a storm against that project. I mean, everyone profits of modern life and the tech it brings, so long the materials for it are dug up elsewhere.
Why is it always the fucking nordic countries that have it good
probably cause we live in a god damn mountain
Its always Norway.. Damn it.. When is it Finlands turn?
Last year: https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/22982-significant-deposit-of-rare-earth-metals-discovered-in-finnish-lapland.html
Well I'll be damned, thanks for the link!
Just here to say that I come from not far away from that place, and this mining operation till 1000% not happen before 2030, if at all. I don\`t think you are aware of how powerful the voice of the farming/district/environmental party is in Norway. And things take aaaages to come to fruitation in general. It is just not going to happen unless there is a new government with dollar signs in their eyes.
Great news for western aligned country's and their allies, less reliance on china is a must.
Well, this makes it easier to decouple from China.
Looks like you would need some US democracy
The US is already rich in minerals. Its already restarted an rare earth metal mine years ago and now is second in production behind China. Rare earth minerals are important in the defense industry so US will take it seriously. https://www.statista.com/statistics/270277/mining-of-rare-earths-by-country/
The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund should just buy Russia and have it plowed over.
Yeah, no thanks. I'd much rather we kicked the Russians off Svalbard for breaking the treaty by staging a "military parade" at their outpost there.
Why doesn’t the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, the largest of the funds, simply eat the other funds?
As if they not rich enough there. lol.
Russia: 👺
Yes. We are going to get rich 😎
Is that handful gonna be enough though?
Great, first they have oil and now they have metals needed for batteries. How?
This is pretty good really. Makes it harder for China to leverage theirs. I lot of the EV push etc comes from stuff mined and made in China. They git a pretty good share and potential influence with it atm
Enough thorium to keep Europe warm for centuries
Now instead of handing out teslas to their people like Halloween candy they will be handing out Rolls Royce’s. I also somehow doubt that foreign governments will work their way in and exploit children to mine the metals.
Hmm... Looks like Norway is in dire need of freedom and democracy™️
Easy mode!
Russia is already planing a "visit"
Heads up - Putin is also a neighbour and likes taking things that aren’t his
Sheen, this is the seventh week in a row you've discovered rare substances in Norway
Nice. Then the Thorium will be dug up along with the rare earth metals. It contains 10-100 times more energy than all oil and gas in the North Sea. We just need a Thorium Reactor
Not much yttrium or scandium though unfortunately
Note biggest not only both Sweden and Finland have deposits too that could effectively supply Europe without needing to buy from china or America
The Russians will try stealing it
Norway wins the game of catan
Who has more natural revolution, Iraq or Norway?
No wayyyy...
1. Finding a deposit. 2. Refine rare earth metal to sell at a competitive price. 3. ??? 4. Profit and/or environmental disaster
Damn vikings.
Can’t wait for pseudogreenies complain about child labour and environmental damage from mining these in third world countries and modern mine never being setup… thus pushing even more demand from poor sources further exacerbating issue…
[here comes the money](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeXatquVqAc)
Fucking hell, at this point we should just turn norway into one huge mine and be done with it
Look out! They need freedom!