Luleå Industrial park: "Crucial For the Future of Critical Minerals"

The Swedish mining company LKAB have submited its application for an environmental permit for processing phosphorus and rare earth metals in Luleå, northern Sweden, the company reports.

The planned industrial park could be the first of its kind in Europe and a significant building block in increasing the self-sufficiency of critical minerals, with the potential to cover seven times the need for phosphorus for Swedish agriculture.

The supply of phosphorus for mineral fertilizers is crucial for the food supply in Sweden and the EU, while rare earth metals are used for the electrification and digitization of society, for example the manufacture of permanent magnets in electric cars and wind turbines.

Fully developed, production from the industrial park is estimated to be able to cover approximately seven times Sweden's needs and eight percent of the EU's need for phosphorus. Today, there is no extraction of rare earth metals in Europe.

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