COMMENTARY — The state of Europe’s mineral sector

Europe’s role as a mineral producer has been gradually diminishing over the years. The only important metals in which Western Europe is now a world player are iron, copper, lead and zinc. Production of metallic minerals in Eastern Europe, excluding the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), is mainly concentrated in Poland and, to a lesser extent, Romania.

Sweden, which has been home to significant metal mining activity for a least a thousand years, is today the leading European producer of gold, silver, lead and iron ore, and is highly competitive in the copper and zinc markets.

Its annual gold production continues to grow, but at a rate which bears little relation to the country’s geological potential. The fact that new, viable gold deposits can be found in established mining districts shows the need for a new approach to geological interpretation.

Sweden still offers the highest potential in Europe for new mineral discoveries. On an international scale, that country remains relatively unexplored, though the country is experiencing an exploration boom. Foreign participation in exploration and mining is rapidly increasing, boosted by the combination of up-to-date mining legislation and a liberal economic climate.

Outside of Sweden’s known mineral districts, much of the country remains underexplored but offers great potential for new discoveries. In particular, significant opportunities exist for the discovery of new deposits of base and precious metals, nickel and high-value industrial minerals, while Sweden’s diamond potential remains largely untested.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the transformations that occurred in socialist Eastern Europe have had, and will continue to have, a more profound effect on mineral markets than on those of most other industries.

These countries had previously controlled the balance between production and consumption, and had only limited trade with either industrialized or developing countries. Today, the balance is being maintained through increased exports of surplus production. However, mining production in the CIS has decreased dramatically in the 1990s. The region continues nonetheless to be particularly strong in nickel, while copper and gold remain important.

— From the newsletter of the International Council on Metals and the Environment.