Mapping of Innovation-Critical Metals and Minerals
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Translation of government assignment Mapping of innovation-critical metals and minerals Anders Hallberg & Helge Reginiussen December 2019 SGU report 2019:20 Cover photo: Drillcore containing lithium from Järkvissle. Photo: Specim. Full title of the government assignment: Uppdrag att kartlägga Sveriges möjligheter att utvinna metaller och mineral för miljö- och teknikinnovationer. Authors: Anders Hallberg and Helge Reginiussen Head of division: Erika Ingvald Editor: Lina Rönnåsen Geological Survey of Sweden Box 670, 751 28 Uppsala, Sweden phone: 018-17 90 00 e-mail: [email protected] www.sgu.se CONTENTS The assignment ................................................................................................................................................. 4 Summary ............................................................................................................................................................... 4 Critical raw materials – an overview .................................................................................................. 8 The EU critical list ............................................................................................................................................. 8 Critical raw materials for Sweden ................................................................................................................ 9 Conflict minerals ............................................................................................................................................... 10 Factors influencing extraction potential ......................................................................................... 11 Geological potential ......................................................................................................................................... 11 Main metals and by-products ....................................................................................................................... 11 Economic factors .............................................................................................................................................. 12 Legal factors ....................................................................................................................................................... 13 Mineral exploration ......................................................................................................................................... 13 Methodology and data ................................................................................................................................ 14 Ample knowledge of the main metals ........................................................................................................ 14 All critical raw materials ................................................................................................................................. 14 A chemical ore database – MALMKEMI-db ............................................................................................... 15 Potential for extraction in Sweden ...................................................................................................... 17 Geological potential ......................................................................................................................................... 17 Deposits with ore estimates .......................................................................................................................... 17 Old deposits – new analyses ......................................................................................................................... 22 Järkvissle .............................................................................................................................. 22 Riddarhyttefältet .................................................................................................................. 22 Stollbergsfältet ..................................................................................................................... 24 The nickel line ....................................................................................................................... 26 Yxsjöberg and Svärtträsk ...................................................................................................... 26 Viscaria................................................................................................................................. 27 Adak ..................................................................................................................................... 27 The Grängesberg area .......................................................................................................... 28 Östanmossen........................................................................................................................ 29 Dingelvik-Henneviken ........................................................................................................... 30 Alkaline intrusions ................................................................................................................ 31 Further work ....................................................................................................................................................... 32 The potential of Sweden’s industrial infrastructure ............................................................................... 32 References............................................................................................................................................................ 33 Appendix 1. Critical raw materials for the EU (2017) ............................................................... 38 Appendix 2. Data sources .......................................................................................................................... 39 Appendix 3. Lithogeochemical analyses .......................................................................................... 40 Appendix 4. The MALMKEMI-db database .................................................................................... 41 Appendix 5. Geological overview ......................................................................................................... 43 Appendix 6. New sampling of drill cores and tailings ............................................................. 46 Appendix 7. Occurrences of selected critical metals and minerals ................................64 THE ASSIGNMENT SGU has been instructed by the Swedish government to map the potential for extraction in Sweden of metals and minerals that are needed to manufacture new environmental and technical inno- vations being developed in Sweden and Europe. The project includes mapping and knowledge building of both primary and secondary sources of innovation-critical minerals and metals and mapping of the most important mining waste deposits in the Bergslagen mining district. In a parallel project, the Swedish Agency for Growth Policy Analysis (Growth Analysis) has analysed the future need for innovation-critical metals, including the possibility of locating the whole production chain from raw material extraction to final product in Sweden. This document is a translation of the final report on the government assignment. The report (to the Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation, journal no. N2016/06368/FÖF) was published in December 2018 (SGU journal no. 311-2379/2016, in Swedish) An interim report was published in February 2018. SUMMARY In the interim report on this government assignment SGU concluded that Sweden has geological potential for a number of innovation-critical raw materials and showed that there are already several deposits with ore estimates that include these raw materials. This final report expands and updates the information on deposits with ore estimates to include more raw materials (see Figure 1 and Table 5). The number of deposits with ore estimates including critical raw materials evidences Sweden’s good geological potential. The interim report also showed the locations where SGU’s sampling and compilations indicated elevated levels of some critical raw materials. This report relates this knowledge to statistical in- formation on mining production and exploration projects. A prerequisite for economically sustainable extraction of critical raw materials as a by-product in the extraction of a main metal (iron, base or precious metals) is that there are mineable resources of main metals. SGU has identified several mines and mining areas (most of them closed), as well as several exploration projects, where new analyses or digitised older analyses showed one or more critical metals together with main metals (see Table 1). These demonstrated relationships are not comparable with a proper ore estimate, since there are too few new analyses. However, they show that the deposits are worth more detailed investigation. In all cases, sampling and analysis of drill core, rock samples and mining waste have added new information on the presence of critical raw materials. These findings are shown in the map in Figure 1 under the heading “New analyses”, and in Table 1. Brief descriptions of several of the deposits can be found in the section “Old deposits – new analyses”. Active exploration and research is currently under way on extraction of critical raw materials at several of the areas and deposits that have been identified. Detailed mapping and mineral deposit documentation by SGU are ongoing