World News for Students of English

18-01-2023 07:00

The Swedish government’s company LKAB says that it has identified mineral resources of more than one million tons of rare earth minerals in the Kiruna area.

The discovery is the largest known such deposit in Europe in the far north of Sweden. Rare earth minerals are essential to many high-tech manufacturing processes, and people use them in electric vehicles, wind turbines, portable electronics, microphones, and speakers. People currently do not mine them in Europe, so the region depends on imports from elsewhere.

The demand for rare minerals is expected to rise in coming years due to an increase in electric vehicles and renewable energy. According to the Swedish Minister for Energy, Business, and Industry, mines will bring the EU’s self-sufficiency and independence from Russia and China. Europe will reduce its carbon footprint and strengthen its competitiveness at the same time.

Difficult words: essential (extremely important), self-sufficiency (care for everything without the help of other people or countries), competitiveness (do business better than other companies).

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