LEADING EDGE MATERIALS GRANTED 25-YEAR MINING LEASE FOR NORRA KARR HEAVY RARE EARTH ELEMENTS PROJECT
Leading Edge Materials Corp. announced that its wholly-owned Swedish subsidiary, GREENNA Mineral AB, has been granted a 25-year Exploitation Concession for the Norra Kärr Heavy Rare Earth Elements Project by the Swedish Government. The concession, formally known as a bearbetningskoncession for Norra Kärr K Nr. 2, follows a formal recommendation from the Mining Inspectorate (Bergsstaten) after all involved agencies endorsed or recommended approval. The Government determined that the public interest in domestic rare earth element (REE) supply outweighs competing land-use interests.
Norra Kärr is identified as one of Europe's richest REE deposits, characterized by a high proportion of heavy rare earths (HREE) including dysprosium, terbium, and yttrium. It is positioned to become the EU's first HREE mine, a development deemed strategically important as the bloc currently has no domestic rare earth production. The release cites China's April 2025 export controls on dysprosium and terbium as a key market driver, which caused European dysprosium prices to rise from approximately $280/kg to ~$950/kg and terbium to ~$4,000/kg, compared to ~$1,000/kg in China. European yttrium oxide prices reached ~$270/kg versus ~$11/kg in China.
The project’s production profile, based on a 2021 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA), outlines an operation life of 26 years with an average production of 5,340 tonnes per annum (tpa) of mixed rare earth oxides (MREOs). This is based on approximately 30% of the inferred resource, comprising 110 million tonnes grading 0.5% TREO. By-products include approximately 733,000 tpa of nepheline syenite, 10,200 tpa of zirconium, and 525 tpa of niobium oxides. Financial metrics from the 2021 PEA included a post-tax Net Present Value (10%) of US$762 million, an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 26.3%, and average annual EBITDA of US$206 million. These estimates were based on older price assumptions, with dysprosium at $486/kg and terbium at $1,216/kg, which are now significantly lower than current European spot prices.
The project features a neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) to dysprosium-terbium (DyTb) ratio of 2.5 to 1, yielding 0.4 kg of DyTb for every 1 kg of NdPr. This contrasts with a peer group average of 38.5 to 1. Edison Research estimates current European dysprosium demand at 180-200 tpa of Dy₂O₃, while Norra Kärr's PEA discloses an average annual Dy₂O₃ production of 248t.
Leading Edge Materials plans to advance an updated Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), secure environmental permits, and engage with offtake partners and financiers to move toward production. The company also intends to consider reapplying for "Strategic Project" designation under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act to facilitate streamlined permitting and financing access.
Kurt Budge, CEO of Leading Edge Materials, stated: "This is a transformational moment for Norra Kärr, for Leading Edge Materials, and for European critical raw materials supply security. The Government's decision affirms that this is a strategically important heavy rare earth deposit, located in a Tier 1 jurisdiction, with the capacity to supply all of Europe's annual dysprosium requirements alongside meaningful terbium and yttrium production..."
Budge added: "We recognise that local concerns exist alongside the broad European consensus on the need for domestic rare earth extraction, and we take those concerns seriously. Norra Kärr will be developed to the highest environmental standards, in close dialogue with the local community..."