Rare Earth Elements (REE)

Rare Earth Elements are vital for the green and digital transition, powering technologies such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, and electronics. CAMM-CRM’s research supports a sustainable European REE supply chain through innovation in exploration, processing, and recycling, including environmental aspects.

Summary

Led by Lena Sundqvist-Öqvist, Professor in Process Metallurgy, the REE Research Pillar (RP4) focuses on securing a sustainable supply of Rare Earth Elements for Europe. Today, the EU is almost entirely dependent on imports, mainly from China, creating vulnerability for renewable energy, electrification, and defence industries. Northern Sweden holds significant potential to strengthen Europe’s independence through REE recovery from mine tailings, primary ores, and recycling streams. Key initiatives include LKAB’s work in Malmberget and Kiruna, Boliden’s recycling operations, and the emerging ReeMAP industrial park in Luleå. Together with deposits such as Per Geijer and Norra Kärr, these developments position Sweden as a future leader in sustainable REE production.

Goals

• Secure a sustainable REE supply chain for Europe and reduce import dependency.
• Position Sweden as a leader in REE production, recycling, and process innovation.
• Advance mineral systems knowledge of REE deposits.
• Develop primary REE beneficiation and extraction solutions.
• Enable circularity and secondary recovery.
• Design environmentally and economically viable process flowsheets.
• Mitigate environmental challenges.

Research Focus and Key Areas of Work

• Mineral Systems and Exploration
  Research aims to improve understanding of the geological controls governing REE mineralization and to develop robust exploration models. Studies integrate lithostratigraphic, structural, and petrogenetic analyses with deep-sensing geophysical techniques, such as magnetotellurics, to properly dissect REE mineral systems. Detailed facies, geochemical, petrogenetic, and geochronological studies help distinguish between primary enrichment processes and secondary modifications caused by deformation, alteration, or metamorphism. These insights provide the mineral systems framework needed to guide exploration and reduce early-stage risks.
• Processing and Extraction Innovation
  Process innovation focuses on beneficiation, extraction, refining, and circular flows of REEs, also in some cases with feed materials for which sustainable processes are lacking. Beneficiation of REE ores is challenging due to low grades, fine intergrowths, and complex mineralogy for minerals such as eudialyte, allanite, and apatite. Research therefore targets efficient pre-concentration strategies including ore sorting, micro- and nano-flotation, gravity, and magnetic separation. In hydrometallurgical processing, challenges such as silica gel formation, high acid consumption, and impurity co-dissolution are addressed through novel, environmentally responsible solutions to improve recovery and reduce chemical use in processing various REE-bearing materials.
• Secondary Recovery and Circularity
  Secondary sources, especially permanent magnets (NdFeB, SmCo), represent major potential feedstocks for REE recycling. Large components from wind turbines, electric vehicles, and industrial machinery can be directly reused or recycled as magnet alloys, while fine, dispersed magnets in consumer electronics remain difficult to recover. Research at CAMM-CRM investigates pyrometallurgical recovery from slags and dusts generated in facilities such as Boliden Rönnskär, where REEs may accumulate in secondary products.
• Process Optimization and Environmental Responsibility
  Process optimization aims to develop environmentally and economically viable flowsheets for the joint recovery of high-purity REEs and phosphorus, while valorising by-products and ensuring the safe fixation of elements such as fluorine and iron. Laboratory- and pilot-scale validation, in collaboration with LKAB and Boliden, ensures direct industrial relevance. Research also addresses potential environmental challenges in new REE processing chains, including process-water degradation and downstream water-quality impacts. By developing upstream beneficiation solutions, this research pillar works to prevent these problems at their source and promote responsible production.
• Strategic Significance
  By combining mineralogical expertise, advanced mineral processing, process metallurgy, and close industrial collaboration, this research pillar supports Sweden’s transition from resource holder to REE producer and recycler. Outcomes include new mineral-systems knowledge, validated processing routes, and the training of experts capable of bridging research and industry. Strengthening domestic REE supply will reinforce Europe’s energy, industrial, and defence resilience while promoting environmentally responsible mining and processing practices.
  

Current Projects

• Unravelling the role of Archaean basement-reworking in controlling the style of Proterozoic CRM endowment in northern Sweden: A 3D anisotropic magnetotelluric imaging approach
• Green collectors for apatite flotation
• Magflow for upgrading Eudialyte: An ecofriendly approach
• Processing U-bearing REE ores
• Interaction between leaching parameters and the chemical and mineralogical properties of raw materials
• Environmental risks regarding REE mining in Sweden