On June 6, it became official: The Fen Complex in Nome Municipality in Telemark boasts the largest proven deposit of Rare Earth Elements (REE) in Europe. This was confirmed by the mining company Rare Earths Norway during a press conference, where they presented an official report on the resource estimate to the Minister of Trade and Industry, Cecilie Myrseth. The report was prepared according to international standards.
Henrik Schiellerup, NGU's Director of Resources and Environment, was present at the press conference:
"For many years, we at NGU have promoted the Fen Complex as a significant Norwegian and European deposit of rare earth elements—both nationally and internationally. However, without the formal reports and resource estimates, neither the deposit, the projects, nor Norway as a mineral nation, have received the corresponding attention. Now, we have figures showing that the Fen Complex is indeed Europe’s largest known REE deposit, and the data is important documentation of Norway’s geological resource potential. We look forward to the continuation," says Henrik Schiellerup.
Referring to the survey conducted by NGU
Rare Earths Norway (REN) refers to NGU's previous mapping in the Fen Complex in 2017-2018 in their press release:
"The mineral resource estimate shows that the Fen Complex is currently the largest deposit of rare earth elements in Europe. The work so far provides an independent resource estimate down to 468 meters below sea level. REN expects that the deposit will become significantly larger in the long term. Previous deep drilling, conducted by the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) and regional geologist Sven Dahlgren, has shown that the mineralization continues down to at least 1000 meters. REN also expects that the development of new mining technology will help increase future resource estimates."
Critical raw materials, high supply risk
Rare earth elements are of great importance for the green transition, particularly for the production and use of modern technology such as mobile phones, wind turbines, batteries, electric vehicles, and defense materials. The geopolitical situation in the world has shown that supply chains of critical raw materials are vulnerable, and the EU is now highly focused on locally sourced raw materials and sustainable value chains for critical minerals.
"Ursula von der Leyen has stated that lithium and REE will soon become more important than oil and gas (Reference: State of the European Union address, 14.09.2022). About 17% of the REE content in the mineral resource estimate consists of magnet-related rare earth metals (neodymium and praseodymium). These magnet-related rare earth metals are ranked by the EU as the most critical raw materials in terms of supply risk for European industry (Reference: Study on Raw Materials, EU 2023)," REN's press release states on June 6th.
"World's Most Sustainable Mineral Industry"
The government's mineral strategy states that Norway will create "the world's most sustainable mineral industry." Rare Earths Norway works to adhere to the mineral strategy and states the following in their press release:
"Rare Earths Norway is working on a new standard for mineral extraction and is developing the world's most sustainable mineral extraction through the mining concept Invisible Mine. This mining concept includes an electrified and autonomous mine with backfilling of surplus masses for, among other things, maximum utilization of the deposit. Rare Earths Norway is currently developing both the mining concept and technology for mineral processing through three major research projects in nearly 20 countries. In addition, we supply raw materials to two more international research projects."
