A sinking city moving for a metal mine

<p>The town of Kiruna in Sweden is being moved building by building to facilitate new mining activity, in what’s thought to be <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/sweden-discovers-rare-earth-mineral-deposit-b1052958.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Europe’s largest deposit of rare earth metals</a>. But do we <strong>need</strong> to mine for such materials? Can we recycle what we already have instead? Kiruna’s Head of Planning <strong>Nina Eliason</strong> discusses the move, and <strong>Anders Lindberg</strong> from <a href="https://lkab.com/en/press/europes-largest-deposit-of-rare-earth-metals-is-located-in-the-kiruna-area/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mining firm LKAB</a> explains what they hope to recover from the mine. Plus <strong>Robbie Staniforth</strong> from <a href="https://www.ecosurety.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ecosurety</a> explains why e-waste recycling isn’t very popular, but why it is needed. In this episode:</p><p><br></p><ul><li>Why is Kiruna being moved?</li><li>Why move the buildings, instead of re-building the city elsewhere?</li><li>The precious metals within the Per Geiger Deposit</li><li>How substances from the mine can be used for everything from tech to fertilisers</li><li>Have we mined enough precious metals?</li><li>How much of a smartphone can actually be recycled?</li><li>The complicated process of recycling chips and batteries</li><li>Why government legislation is needed to make e-waste recycling viable</li></ul><p><br></p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/EveningStandard" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Follow us on Twitter</a> #TheLeaderPodcast</p><p><br></p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>