Sweden to Scrap Ban on Uranium Mining

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Sweden's ban on uranium mining will be lifted according to the country's climate minister, Romina Pourmokhtari.

Her plan to repeal the ban comes as the coalition government recently announced its full backing to build up to 10 new nuclear reactors over the next two decades. "The government is aiming at doubling electricity production in 20 years," Pourmokhtari told The Times newspaper. "For our clean power system to function, a large part of this has to be dispatchable where nuclear power is the only non-fossil option. Nuclear power also has a reduced environmental footprint and requires limited resources in comparison with most energy sources."

She revealed that most in the government support the lifting of the ban, which was brought in under a previous government in 2018 to stop uranium exploration, mining and processing. Sweden currently holds 80% of the European Union's (EU's) uranium deposits and is believed to host Europe's largest deposit of rare earths. According to the World Nuclear Association, Kazakhstan is the largest uranium miner, accounting for 43% of the global supply in 2022, followed by Canada (15%) and Namibia (11%). However, Russia dominates the processing of the fuel with nearly 50% of the market. Sweden, and the rest of Europe, are in the process of reducing their reliance on Russia for any forms of energy and fuel. The country's pro-nuclear development drive is being driven by climate goals and energy security, and the government has signaled its intentions to change current environmental laws that restrict the maximum number of nuclear reactors to 10 and stipulates that new reactors can only be located at existing nuclear plant sites. Today, Sweden has six reactors supplying about 30% of the country's power. For additional information, see August 21, 2023, article - Sweden to Build 10 Nuclear Power Reactors.

Earlier this year, a private motion to overturn the uranium mining ban was defeated but a number of third-party mining companies are confident that the ban will be lifted. Australian minerals company Aura Energy (Queensland, Australia), which is sitting on potentially the world's second largest uranium deposit at the Haggan Vanadium-Uranium Project, currently has to discard any uranium found while mining other minerals. Canada's District Metals (Vancouver), which has rights to massive mining sectors containing uranium and other metals, is also confident that the moratorium will be lifted. "The Russian invasion of Ukraine has put a spotlight on energy supply and security for Sweden, Europe and all other democratic countries that rely on energy from autocratic countries," Garrett Ainsworth, District Metals' chief executive, told The Times. "Relying on autocratic countries for anything is a large risk that has now been deemed unacceptable. The democratic countries must break the 'not in my backyard' mentality and focus on exploiting domestic supplies of resources for energy and materials."

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