Norway has discovered a huge deposit of critical raw materials, including phosphate. Norge Mining, founded in 2018 with the backing of Swiss and German investors after securing five exploration licenses for a phosphate deposit in the Dalane region in sparsely populated southwestern Norway, has since secured six licenses for the development across 420 km2, according to a report by Germany’s DW News.
According to the report, citing Norge Mining, U.K.-based consulting firm SRK calculated that the total ore body contains 70-80 billion mt of phosphate-containing material, which would make it the world’s largest phosphate deposit, ahead of Morocco’s 50 billion mt and China’s 30 billion mt. Norge Mining expects it will take about five years to begin extraction, according to the report.
Besides phosphates, two other important minerals were found: vanadium and titanium. The Norwegian mega deposit has spurred the European Union’s interest, all the more since phosphate, vanadium, and titanium are on the European Commission’s list of critical raw materials, DW reported.
Norge Mining is registered in the U.K., with an office in Egersund, Norway.