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1) Europe's has high hopes to lessen the reliance on China for critical rare earth minerals after a large deposit was discovered in Sweden. Announcing potentially the largest known discovery in Europe, LKAB - the Swedish state-owned mining company - said that some of the rare earths can be used to produce permanent magnets that can be used in electric cars and wind turbines. Jan Mostrom, LKAB CEO, said that the deposit "could become a significant building block for producing the critical raw materials that are absolutely crucial to enable the green transition." The bad news is that it could take 10 to 15 years for the deposit to be developed according to Mr. Mostrom, as it needs to go through obtaining permits and fight the impending protesters, such as the Sami indigenous population that said the development of the mineral deposit would split a traditional area for reindeer herding and damage their right to exercise their culture. The discovery holds an estimated 1 million tons of rare earth oxides, which rare earth minerals are extracted from. As the European Union pushes its climate goals and lowering carbon emissions, mines and discoveries such as these are needed to enable these ambitious goals and stop relying on hostile foreign powers.
2) A Japanese delegation will meet with Canadian battery and mining companies early this year. Canada has been looking to entice foreign investments into the electric vehicle supply chain, which includes mining and processing the raw minerals, but also building battery manufacturing plants. Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida said that Japan is looking to Canada to "play a major role, as a resource-rich country" on energy. Both the Prime Minister of Japan and of Canada agreed that "China is a central challenge" and both reiterated their support for the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Japan does not have many mines in its own country as they look overseas to secure any supplies of raw materials. Now with the push for reducing carbon emissions, just like in the European Union, and car makers such as Toyota and Honda pushing for electric vehicles, Japan needs to sign and invest in critical mineral producing countries to secure the much-needed critical minerals to accomplish these green goals.