The town of Kiruna in Sweden is being moved building by building to facilitate new mining activity, in what’s thought to be Europe’s largest deposit of rare earth metals. But do we need to mine for such materials? Can we recycle what we already have instead? Kiruna’s Head of Planning Nina Eliason discusses the move, and Anders Lindberg from mining firm LKAB explains what they hope to recover from the mine. Plus Robbie Staniforth from Ecosurety explains why e-waste recycling isn’t very popular, but why it is needed. In this episode:

• Why is Kiruna being moved?
• Why move the buildings, instead of re-building the city elsewhere?
• The precious metals within the Per Geiger Deposit
• How substances from the mine can be used for everything from tech to fertilisers
• Have we mined enough precious metals?
• How much of a smartphone can actually be recycled?
• The complicated process of recycling chips and batteries
• Why government legislation is needed to make e-waste recycling viable

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