The extinction of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), a species that roamed much of the northern hemisphere for around half a million years, culminating in extinction approximately 4,000 years ago, is understood to have been caused by a complex interplay of climate change and human activity.

Recent scientific findings emphasize that rapid climate warming at the end of the last Ice Age drastically altered mammoth habitats.

This warming led to the retreat of glaciers and the transformation of the tundra steppe—prime mammoth grazing grounds—into wetter, shrub- and forest-dominated landscapes unsuitable for sustaining large herbivores like mammoths.

The reduction in suitable grazing land caused declines in mammoth population size and genetic diversity, impairing their ability to adapt to rapidly changing environments.

Studies utilizing ancient DNA from Arctic permafrost reveal that mammoths persisted even as their populations shrank, with some existing as recently as 5,000 years ago in isolated refugia such as Siberia and Alaska, challenging earlier assumptions of abrupt extinction due solely to human hunting

[d0fdd296-9dbe-4774-a00b-b9fe01772cb1_668789018; f59dc840-8a51-49ca-a687-2f0a97d918ca_227922426; 7ae40e2b-8a33-4be4-8307-c3c08a1eb04b_761501946].

Archaeological evidence from sites such as the Berelekh River "mammoth graveyard" in Siberia indicates a long, approximately 800-year period of human interaction with mammoths.

This site shows thousands of disarticulated mammoth bones alongside hearth remains and worked mammoth ivory artifacts, suggesting humans hunted or scavenged mammoths and utilized their resources intensively for tools and clothing.

Bone sorting patterns and absence of catastrophic death signs suggest a primarily human-driven accumulation of remains rather than mass natural die-offs or fluvial transport.

Radiocarbon dates associate these human-mammoth interactions with deglacial climate fluctuations, further hinting that human hunting exerted additional pressure on dwindling populations .

However, climate-driven environmental changes appear to have been the dominant driver.

Rapidly changing vegetation and habitat loss forced isolated populations into genetic bottlenecks.

Contrary to some hypotheses, recent genetic studies on populations such as those on Wrangel Island indicate that inbreeding and accumulation of harmful mutations were likely not the primary extinction causes.

Instead, factors such as brief climatic perturbations, disease outbreaks, or environmental stochasticity may have precipitated final population declines .

Although humans undoubtedly influenced mammoth decline through hunting, the evidence supports a scenario where climate change-mediated habitat loss and resultant ecological pressures were the principal extinction causes, with human activities intensifying stress upon already vulnerable populations.

This conclusion reflects shifts in scientific understanding from "overkill" hunting to a more nuanced view acknowledging climate as the primary force with humans as contributory agents.

Lessons drawn from the woolly mammoth's extinction underscore how rapid environmental changes can precipitate megafaunal declines, especially when combined with anthropogenic pressures.

Furthermore, they serve as a prehistoric example of human ecological impact, informing contemporary conservation biology about the risks species face amid accelerating global climate change and habitat modification.

In summary, the woolly mammoth disappeared due principally to climate-induced habitat alteration and fragmentation at the end of the last Ice Age, with early human hunting playing a significant but less central role.

This integrated view, supported by paleogenomic, archaeological, and paleoenvironmental data, improves our comprehension of extinction dynamics in prehistoric ecosystems and human influence thereupon [d0fdd296-9dbe-4774-a00b-b9fe01772cb1_668789018; f59dc840-8a51-49ca-a687-2f0a97d918ca_227922426; 7ae40e2b-8a33-4be4-8307-c3c08a1eb04b_761501946; c1e6db3c-0326-4e04-a106-0a4c7aad96bb_386798691].

The extinction of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), a species that roamed much of the northern hemisphere for around half a million years, culminating in extinction approximately 4,000 years ago, is understood to have been caused by a complex interplay of climate change and human activity.

Title:

Content: Partners news
The cause of the extinction of mammoths
Scientists have found that mammoths died out due to climate change
Photo: Stanislav Krasilnikov / TASS
An international team of researchers found that the cause of the extinction of mammoths in Siberia was primarily a sharp climate change, not human activity.
The article is published in the journal Nature.
Woolly mammoths became extinct only about four thousand years ago.
They were not only the main source of meat of ancient people – the latter made from their bones the basis for dwellings, from their tusks made harpoons and even musical instruments.
Therefore, there is a widespread theory that the main cause of extinction was humans.
Researchers from the Institute of Earth Sciences of St. Petersburg State University together with colleagues from the UK, Denmark, China, Norway and the United States decided to restore the appearance of the tundrosteppe, which was inhabited by mammoths.
To do this, they using the shotgun method — obtaining from a random massive sample of cloned fragments of the original sequence — analyzed the DNA of ancient plants and animals collected from 535 different places in the Arctic, where the mammoth lived, over 20 years.
They also analyzed the DNA of more than 1,500 modern plants and animals.
Researchers were able to map the distribution of populations of mammoths and other representatives of the megafauna of the tundrosteppe.
They saw that over time their populations and genetic diversity became smaller and smaller — making survival increasingly difficult.
With the end of the Pleistocene about 12 thousand years ago and the accompanying retreat of glaciers and the formation of rivers, lakes and marshes, vegetation has decreased in volume, and it has become insufficient to maintain the previous level of populations.
As the climate warms, trees and swamp plants have taken the place of former mammoth pastures.
“We have shown that climate change, in particular rainfall, has directly led to changes in vegetation.
According to our models, people did not have any influence on them [mammoths], ” said the first author of the work, a researcher at the University of Cambridge Yuchen Wang.
However, the extinction of mammoths was influenced not only by the warming of the climate itself.
“His speed was the last nail in the lid of the coffin – they (megafauna tundrosteppe – approx.
“Tape.ru ”) could not adapt quickly enough, when the landscape radically changed and food was not enough, ” said the head of the scientific group, Professor of Copenhagen and Cambridge universities Eske Willerslev.
Only what is important to you is in the “Tape of the Day ” in Telegram.
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How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

When did the last population of wooly mammoth become extinct?

Recent scientific findings emphasize that rapid climate warming at the end of the last Ice Age drastically altered mammoth habitats.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

This warming led to the retreat of glaciers and the transformation of the tundra steppe—prime mammoth grazing grounds—into wetter, shrub- and forest-dominated landscapes unsuitable for sustaining large herbivores like mammoths.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

pastures becoming swampy
shrank grassland
restricted habitat
food sources disappearing

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The reduction in suitable grazing land caused declines in mammoth population size and genetic diversity, impairing their ability to adapt to rapidly changing environments.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

shrank grassland
restricted habitat
food sources disappearing

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

Studies utilizing ancient DNA from Arctic permafrost reveal that mammoths persisted even as their populations shrank, with some existing as recently as 5,000 years ago in isolated refugia such as Siberia and Alaska, challenging earlier assumptions of abrupt extinction due solely to human hunting

Title:

Content: DNA samples from permafrost showed that in Canada mammoths were still preserved 5000 years ago
In a new paper published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers from McMaster University, the University of Alberta, the American Museum of Natural History, and the government of the Canadian Yukon Territory presented DNA samples from 30,000 to 3,000 years ago obtained from permafrost cores in the Klondike region of central Yukon.
The method of DNA isolation and enrichment, created at McMaster University, was used in the work.
Having learned to extract DNA from soil extracted from permafrost, scientists opened a window into ancient life on the Yukon, the vast new information they received changed previous ideas about the dynamics of extinction of animals such as mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed cats, wild horses and others.
Researchers have recreated in amazing detail the changing communities of animals and plants that existed during the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene — an unstable climatic period 11,000 – 14,000 years ago, when a large number of large species disappeared.
During the early Holocene, which began about 11,000 years ago, the Yukon environment changed dramatically.
The formerly rich pastures - the "mammoth steppe" - were overgrown with shrubs and mosses, as this process was no longer held back by numerous herds of mammoths, horses and bison.
The work builds on previous research by McMaster scientists, who determined that woolly mammoths and North American horses were likely present on the Yukon around 9,700 years ago.
Since then, more advanced methods and further research have refined the previous analysis and brought the date closer to the modern period.
The analysis shows that mammoths and horses were already in sharp decline even before the onset of climate instability, but they did not disappear immediately due to excessive human hunting, as previously thought.
In fact, DNA evidence shows that both the woolly mammoth and the North American horse still existed as recently as 5,000 years ago.
“Now that we have these technologies, we understand how much information about the history of life is stored in permafrost, ” explains lead author Tyler Murchie of the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University. — The amount of genetic data in permafrost is quite large and really allows for a large-scale ecosystem and evolutionary reconstruction that has no analogues today. ”
The scientists also stress the need to collect and archive as many permafrost samples as possible that could be lost forever as the Arctic warms.
Another result of the study was a new look at the horse, which, as usual, appeared in North America only after contact with Europeans.
“Although mammoths are gone forever, horses are not, ” says Ross McPhee of the American Museum of Natural History. – The horse that lived on the Yukon 5,000 years ago is directly related to the modern horse species, Equus caballus.
From a biological point of view, this makes the horse an indigenous North American mammal, and it should be treated as such. "
Source: polit.ru

According to most recent research, what cause of wooly mammoth extinction is not as important as previously believed?

[d0fdd296-9dbe-4774-a00b-b9fe01772cb1_668789018; f59dc840-8a51-49ca-a687-2f0a97d918ca_227922426; 7ae40e2b-8a33-4be4-8307-c3c08a1eb04b_761501946].

Archaeological evidence from sites such as the Berelekh River "mammoth graveyard" in Siberia indicates a long, approximately 800-year period of human interaction with mammoths.

Title:

Content:
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

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Siberia's 'mammoth graveyard' reveals 800-year human interactions with woolly beasts

Woolly mammoths are evocative of a bygone era, when Earth was gripped within an Ice Age. Current knowledge places early mammoth ancestors in the Pliocene (2.58–5.33 million years ago, Ma) before their populations expanded in the Pleistocene (2.58 Ma–11,700 years ago, kyr). However, as climate changed, their numbers dwindled to isolated populations in modern Siberia and Alaska, until their last dated survival 4 kyr ago.

In the East Siberian Arctic (>70 °N), there is not only evidence of significant woolly mammoth populations, but also how humans interacted with them, the focus of new research in Quaternary Science Reviews.

Along the Berelekh River, Russia, a 'mammoth graveyard' can be found. Here, thousands of disarticulated bones, representing a minimum of 156 individual mammoths, found alongside an indicate the close proximity of these two communities, forming the Berelekh geoarchaeological complex.

Dr. Vladimir Pitulko, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and colleagues aimed to assess the relationship between the 'mammoth graveyard' and the archaeological site through a re-examination of stratigraphic and paleogeographic data obtained in 2009, with new fieldwork focused on the left riverbanks where have readily yielded from their home in the sediment and appeared on the water's edge. Alongside them are remains of Pleistocene hare, Arctic fox and wolves, as well as soot and charcoal from hearths and worked mammoth tusks (one being an unfinished throwing spear).

The researchers suggest humans created these bone accumulations as a byproduct of the production of mammoth ivory technology, while hares may have been targeted for fur to produce winter clothing.

Notably, evidence of blowfly pupae activity on cavities in skulls and bones is indicative that the mammoth carcasses were added to the 'graveyard' de-fleshed. Indeed, there appears to be evidence of sorting of the bones, with only the most valuable transported to Berelekh from the area in which the mammoth was killed, leaving behind parts such as spinal columns, carpal ('hand') and tarsal ('foot') bones.

There are three radiocarbon dated peaks in woolly mammoth accumulation at 11.8, 12.2 and 12.4 kyr ago, which fall within known human settlement of the area (11.2–12.4 kyr ago) during the Bølling-Allerød deglacial, when the warmed and pollen evidence suggests the region became more arid.

Fluctuations in the abundance of mammoths in the 'graveyard' suggest human settlement of the area may also have changed through time (frequent occupation but not permanent), which the researchers attribute to on the floodplain permitting suitability for erecting campsites.

Radiocarbon dating of mammoth remains identifies their presence here pre-dating human settlement (beginning ~12.5 kyr ago), but also shows that humans remained in the area (until ~11.2 kyr ago) after mass mammoth remains accumulation declined (~11.8 kyr ago).

Given this, four possible causes are suggested by the scientists to explain such a significant mass accumulation of bones: 1) mass death by natural causes or human, 2) repeated group deaths in the same location, likely due to human predation, 3) concentration of remains by , such as river action, or 4) solely derived from human predation or scavenging from deceased carcasses.

However, the latter is considered to be the most likely to produce useful tools from ivory tusks, as well as meat to feed the community, as there is no evidence on the bones for a cause of mass death, radiocarbon ages do not cluster into multiple phases for recurrent death deposits and stream flows were unlikely to reach sufficient velocities to transport such heavy bones.

These findings are concurrent with mammoth remains at the Yana Paleolithic site, also in Siberia. Here, estimates suggest the 'graveyard' increased by 1–2 mammoths per year rather than a mass death event, a figure Dr. Pitulko and colleagues conclude could be similar or even higher for Berelekh.

This research is significant as it alters the previously-held belief that there was a lag of 50–80 years between mammoth bone accumulation from natural processes (such as deposition in flood channels) and , instead now defining a close relationship between the two over 700–800 years. Sadly, now that human-mammoth relationship has continued as ivory hunters have looted the site beyond further study.

More information: Vladimir V. Pitulko et al, From the Berelekh 'mammoth graveyard' to Berelekh geo-archaeological complex: Paleoenvironment, site formation processes, and human-mammoth relationships, Quaternary Science Reviews (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108692

Journal information: Quaternary Science Reviews

© 2024 Science X Network

Citation: Siberia's 'mammoth graveyard' reveals 800-year human interactions with woolly beasts (2024, June 10) retrieved 10 June 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2024-06-siberia-mammoth-graveyard-reveals-year.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

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What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

This site shows thousands of disarticulated mammoth bones alongside hearth remains and worked mammoth ivory artifacts, suggesting humans hunted or scavenged mammoths and utilized their resources intensively for tools and clothing.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

Bone sorting patterns and absence of catastrophic death signs suggest a primarily human-driven accumulation of remains rather than mass natural die-offs or fluvial transport.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

Radiocarbon dates associate these human-mammoth interactions with deglacial climate fluctuations, further hinting that human hunting exerted additional pressure on dwindling populations .

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

However, climate-driven environmental changes appear to have been the dominant driver.

According to most recent research, what cause of wooly mammoth extinction is not as important as previously believed?

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

pastures becoming swampy
restricted habitat

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

Rapidly changing vegetation and habitat loss forced isolated populations into genetic bottlenecks.

Title:

Content: In one of the most common versions of the extinction of giant mamutes, it is claimed that this was caused by the hunting of ancient people.
Our ancestors literally ate most of the animals.
But recent studies say that this is not the case and people have become far from the main reason for the disappearance of mammoths.
Hunger caused by climate change is the real killer.
Searching for gold, but found mammoths: an incredible story with the Yukon
Drawing of a mammoth on the wall of the cave of Arcy-sur-Cure, France / Photo Wikipedia
The Hungry Death of Great Animals
It would seem that mammoths existed for millions of years and survived several ice ages.
That is, climate change did not affect them critically.
But as soon as they encountered humans, they began to die out.
Finally, we were able to prove that the problem was not only climate change, but also the speed of these changes.
This was the last nail in the coffin – the mammoths could not adapt quickly enough when the landscape changed dramatically and food became scarce.
- says the author of the study Eske Willerslev, a professor at the University of Cambridge and director of the Center for Geogenetics of the Lundbeck Foundation at the University of Copenhagen.
The team, led by Prof. Willerslev, sequenced the DNA of plant, animal, and their fossilized excrement, coprolites.
The selection of these samples lasted about 20 years and allowed us to fully understand why the majestic animals died out.
After the end of the last cooling, the glaciers began to melt.
The environment quickly became quite humid, leading to a chain change in flora.
Typical mamut habitats and pastures became increasingly swampy and vegetation changed accordingly.
As a result, there is simply no food left typical for animals.
From birth to death: scientists have fully investigated the life path of the mammoth
Giants did not have time to adapt to rapid changes, so the total number of mammoths was constantly declining.
Because of this, isolated and partially isolated animal populations arose, which already caused little genetic diversity.
It is clear that all this did not positively affect the chances of survival.
Scientists say climate change is critical.
When such changes destroyed mammoths and probably another megafauna.
Today, we live in a time when the average temperature on the planet is rising again, so we need to take this “harsh lesson ” seriously.

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

Contrary to some hypotheses, recent genetic studies on populations such as those on Wrangel Island indicate that inbreeding and accumulation of harmful mutations were likely not the primary extinction causes.

Title:

Content: We have completed maintenance on DiscoverMagazine.com and action may be required on your account. Learn More

In-Breeding Likely Didn't End the Last of the Mammoth Population

A study of the last likely surviving mammoth population shows that genetics from in-breeding likely did not lead to their demise.

By Paul Smaglik
Jun 27, 2024 6:20 PMJun 27, 2024 6:22 PM
Wrangel Island mammoth tusk (Credit: Love Dalén)

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It would seem obvious that rising sea levels that cut off the last population of woolly mammoths on Wrangel Island from the Siberian coast 10,000 years ago caused in-breeding, leading to their eventual extinction. But a new genetic analysis, reported in Cell, counters that claim.

That result was unexpected, since an earlier report indicated that the mammoth population likely built up harmful genetic mutations, according to Love Dalén, a scientist with the Centre for Palaeogenetics of Sweden, and one of the paper’s authors.

“I was fairly surprised both at how few the mammoths on Wrangel Island were in the beginning (less than 10 individuals), and that we did not find any evidence for an accumulation of highly deleterious mutations,” Dalén says. He calls the relative lack of harmful mutations surprising, because an earlier paper published in 2017 in PLOS Genetics predicted they may have played a factor.

Natural Selection and Genetic Drift

The genetic story of this population — which likely started from 8 individuals and grew to 200 to 300 mammoths over 6,000 years within 20 generations — is a bit more complicated. Two sometimes competing genetic factors were at play.

Natural selection tends to purge harmful variants, because offspring carrying them would be less likely to survive. But genetic drift works to preserve mutations across generations.

This effect tends to be stronger in smaller populations, so it would make sense that it would impact the Wrangel Island mammoths.

Read More: Rapid Evolution Changes Species in Real Time

What Made the Island Mammoths go Extinct?

Although it appears that these two genetic forces competed, it wasn’t necessarily a fair fight.

“Whereas genetic drift affects all deleterious mutations in the same way, natural selection will be stronger the more deleterious a mutation is,” says Dalén. “That way, natural selection is expected to remove the very deleterious mutations from the population, while genetic drift leads to an increase in slightly deleterious ones.”

Therefore, over time, the most harmful mutations were purged, while a bunch of relatively innocuous ones remained. So, if inbreeding didn’t do in the mammoths, what did?

“This leaves us with some other possibilities, such as a disease outbreak, some sort of tundra fire, or very short-term climatic perturbation, where the latter two could have ruined the plant growth for one or a few seasons, which could have had disastrous consequences for such a small population,” Dalén says.

Read More: How Do We Know When a Species Is Extinct?

Conservation of Today

Although the interplay between natural selection and genetic drift didn’t appear to wipe out the mammoths of yore, it still has implications for conservation efforts of today.

For example, conservationists wishing to preserve a species that has almost gone extinct, but has partially recovered, could look to the Wrangel Island mammoths. The implication is that moving a few individuals between two isolated populations could slow genetic drift.

The study’s authors have yet to analyze DNA from the most recent Wrangel Island mammoths. However, researchers have found fossils from the last 300 years of the mammoths’ existence and plan to analyze their genomes.

Read More: Scientists Are Trying to Save These Animals From Extinction

Article Sources

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:

Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.

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According to most recent research, what cause of wooly mammoth extinction is not as important as previously believed?

Instead, factors such as brief climatic perturbations, disease outbreaks, or environmental stochasticity may have precipitated final population declines .

Title:

Content: Woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius)

The most famous of the 10 mammoth species known to have existed is undoubtedly the woolly mammoth. Standing at around the same size as today’s African elephants, this magnificent animal roamed the northern hemisphere for roughly half a million years, becoming extinct by around 2000 BC.

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The reasons for the woolly mammoth’s demise are multifaceted. As the climate warmed at the end of the last Ice Age, and forests spread across the northern hemisphere, the grassland habitats in which the animal thrived were drastically reduced. This, combined with hunting pressures from humans, meant the woolly mammoth population ended up being restricted to just a couple of islands in the Arctic Ocean near Siberia and Alaska.

Some scientists hope to bring the woolly mammoth back from extinction, but with African and Asian elephant populations still facing a huge range of threats, many believe that our focus should be on preserving those animals instead.

Dodo (Raphus cucullatus)

For a large bird species that only became extinct relatively recently, we know surprisingly little about the dodo and its behaviours. In fact, there is just one near- complete dodo skeleton with bones from one bird, and there is only one specimen that contains soft tissue.

What we do know is that the dodo was restricted to Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Madagascar and part of the Mascarene Archipelago, and was a relative to doves and pigeons. It’s thought that natural selection caused the animal to evolve into a flightless bird, with the species no longer needing to fly on an island with no predators.

However, when humans – and the animals they brought with them – first came to Mauritius in the 16th century, the dodo became extremely vulnerable. As well as being hunted for meat, it suffered from habitat loss and the predation of its eggs, resulting in its extinction by c1680.

Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus)

Also known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf, the thylacine was a carnivorous mammal originally found in Australia and New Guinea. Despite being similar in appearance to the domestic dog, it was actually a marsupial – a group of mammals that also includes kangaroos, koalas, wombats and opossums – and had a pouch.

Once widespread, the thylacine became extinct on the Australian mainland no less than 2,000 years ago, although the reasons for this are unknown. The species then became restricted to the island of Tasmania, off the south coast of Victoria, with between 2,000–4,000 individuals remaining when the British arrived in the early 19th century.

Eventually, the thylacine was persecuted as it was deemed a threat to livestock. The last known captive individual died from exposure at a zoo in Hobart in 1936 after being accidentally left out overnight. It’s thought that the last wild thylacines died in the 1960s, but that hasn’t stopped persistent rumours over the species’ continued survival.

Great auk (Pinguinus impennis)

Despite being similar in colouration and shape and bearing the genus name Pinguinus, the great auk wasn’t a relative of penguins, but was instead a member of the same family as puffins and guillemots.

Once a relatively common species in the North Atlantic, it bred on remote rocky islands such as Funk Island off the coast of Newfoundland, which was described by one 18th- century sailor as being “entirely covered with those fowls, so close that a man could not put his foot between them.”

However, exploration of the North Atlantic seas by European sailors spelled danger for the flightless seabird, with overharvesting of its eggs and adults for meat, feathers and body parts dramatically reducing the population. Attempts were made to protect the great auk, but that only increased its worth to collectors.

Sadly, the last breeding pair were killed and their single egg accidentally crushed by fishermen on Eldey Island, Iceland, on 3 July 1844.

Xerces butterfly (Glaucopsyche xerces)

Named after the Persian kings Xerxes I and Xerxes II (whose names are sometimes spelled ‘Xerces’ in France), this diminutive blue butterfly species lived among the coastal sand dunes of the San Francisco Peninsula, where its caterpillar preferred to feed on a single plant species.

However, urban development resulted in the loss of the plant, which could not survive in disturbed soil, and thus the loss of the Xerces blue in the 1940s – the first example of a butterfly becoming extinct due to human activity in North America.

Later, the Xerces Society, a non-profit conservation organisation established in 1971, was named in memory of the lost invertebrate.

For a while, there was uncertainty as to whether the Xerces blue was a distinct species or a subspecies of another blue butterfly. However, a scientific paper published in 2021 examined the DNA of a museum specimen collected in 1928 and proved that it was indeed a distinct species.

Passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius)

The passenger pigeon was one of the most abundant pigeon species on the planet. Native to North America, it was called jahgowa by the Seneca Tribe, which translates to “big bread”, as it was a source of food by the Seneca and the rest of the Haudenosaunee people. Despite this, the hunting of the species was carefully regulated by rules set by each tribe.

However, after colonisation by the Europeans, hunting of the passenger pigeon increased and gradually became more industrial and commercialised. As the population declined, the species then became vulnerable to further pressures such as habitat loss and predation by other animals.

The last living passenger pigeon was a female named Martha, who was kept at Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio. She died on 1 September 1914 – one of the few times we have known the absolute date of a species’ extinction. Her death contributed to the creation of the US Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which requires permits to hunt some migratory bird species.

Golden toad (Incilius periglenes)

So-named for the brilliant yellow-orange colouration of the male (the female was black with yellow and red patterning), the golden toad has become a poster child for extinctions connected to the climate crisis.

Found in the Monteverde Cloud Forest of Costa Rica, the amphibian spent most of the year underground. It only emerged for a few days each April, with males fighting with each other around pools of rainwater in order to mate with females.

In 1987, roughly 1,500 golden toads were observed. However, the following year, only 10 toads were found, and in 1989, just one male. That one male was the last golden
toad ever seen, and the species was officially declared extinct in 2004.

While the exact cause of extinction is unknown, the climate crisis – combined with habitat loss and an infectious disease called chytridiomycosis – are all thought to have played a part.

Baiji (Lipotes vexillifer)

The baiji was a freshwater dolphin that lived in the Yangtze River in China, the third-longest river in the world. Although still listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List, having last been assessed in 2017, the species is considered extinct by conservationists. In fact, both the last confirmed sighting of a wild individual and the death of the last captive individual occurred in 2002.

The Yangtze River is also home to the Yangtze finless porpoise, the only freshwater porpoise in the world. Like the baiji, its existence is currently threatened by overfishing, shipping traffic and noise pollution.

However, the 2017 suspension of sand mining in Dongting Lake – a flood basin of the Yangtze in China’s Hunan province – has seen the finless porpoise return to areas that it had previously been avoiding.

Pinta Island giant tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii or Chelonoidis abingdonii)

While there is debate about whether the giant tortoises of the Galápagos Islands are subspecies of the same species or a completely different species altogether, one thing is certain: Lonesome George was the last of his kind.

George was a Pinta Island tortoise, a species (or subspecies) that was already thought to have been extinct until he was discovered alone on the island that gave George and his former companions their collective name.

There were attempts to find other Pinta Island tortoises, and to mate him with closely related females, but to no avail. He died in 2012 of natural causes when he was around 100 years old.

Curiously, scientists believe it might be possible to bring back the Pinta Island tortoise, or at least a closely related version. Researchers have discovered hybrid tortoises with Pinta Island tortoise genes on nearby Isabela Island, with their Pinta Island ancestors having been moved there by whalers and pirates.

Megan Shersby is a naturalist, science writer and communicator. She was previously editorial and digital coordinator at BBC Wildlife Magazine

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This content first appeared in the November 2023 issue of BBC History Revealed

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Megan ShersbyNaturalist, writer and content creator
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According to most recent research, what cause of wooly mammoth extinction is not as important as previously believed?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

Although humans undoubtedly influenced mammoth decline through hunting, the evidence supports a scenario where climate change-mediated habitat loss and resultant ecological pressures were the principal extinction causes, with human activities intensifying stress upon already vulnerable populations.

According to most recent research, what cause of wooly mammoth extinction is not as important as previously believed?

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

This conclusion reflects shifts in scientific understanding from "overkill" hunting to a more nuanced view acknowledging climate as the primary force with humans as contributory agents.

According to most recent research, what cause of wooly mammoth extinction is not as important as previously believed?

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

Lessons drawn from the woolly mammoth's extinction underscore how rapid environmental changes can precipitate megafaunal declines, especially when combined with anthropogenic pressures.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

Furthermore, they serve as a prehistoric example of human ecological impact, informing contemporary conservation biology about the risks species face amid accelerating global climate change and habitat modification.

Title:

Content: Austrian Man Discovers Hundreds of Mammoth Bones While Renovating His Wine Cellar

Owner Andreas Pernerstorfer thought he’d found a piece of wood, but then he remembered something his grandfather had said about finding teeth in the cellar decades ago

Andreas Pernerstorfer was renovating his wine cellar in northern Austria when he stumbled upon something unusual.

Initially, he thought he’d found a piece of wood that had been left behind by his grandfather, he tells BBC News’ Bethany Bell.

But then Pernerstorfer remembered something his grandfather had mentioned once about finding teeth in the cellar while renovating it decades ago. He wondered if what he thought was a piece of wood was actually something more special.

When he reported his discovery, it turned out his instincts were right: Pernerstorfer’s wine cellar was full of huge mammoth bones—at least 300 of them, reports CNN’s Lianne Kolirin.

Since the middle of May, researchers with the Austrian Archaeological Institute at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) have been excavating the site, which is located in Gobelsburg, a small town about 45 minutes northwest of Vienna.

So far, they’ve found bones that belonged to three individual mammoths, plus charcoal and stone artifacts. They believe the bones—which were stacked on top of one another—are between 30,000 and 40,000 years old.

“I’ve worked in many parts of the world and have never seen so many mammoths in one place,” says Hannah Parow-Souchon, the Austrian Academy of Sciences archaeologist who is leading the dig, to the Washington Post’s Victoria Bisset.

Eventually, the bones will be given to the Natural History Museum Vienna for restoration. Since they started their work this spring, archaeologists have only excavated a 129-square-foot site. They hope to return in August to continue digging.

Roughly 150 years ago, a neighboring wine cellar turned up charcoal, flint artifacts and jewelry. The archaeologists think the two wine cellars probably belong to the same site. Meanwhile, other similar sites in Austria and neighboring countries were excavated more than a century ago and have “largely been lost to modern research,” according to a statement from the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

The discovery marks the “first time we’ve been able to investigate something like this in Austria using modern methods,” says Parow-Souchon in the statement. “Such a dense bone layer of mammoths is rare.”

It’s not clear how or why three different mammoths ended up in the same spot—nor whether they died there or died elsewhere and were later transported to the site. One possibility is that early humans set up a trap or took advantage of the natural topography to ensnare them.

“We have strong indications that [humans] hunted for them but we have no idea how,” says Parow-Souchon to NBC News’ Alex Holmes. “We know that elephants have issues with slopes, so maybe they were hunted on a slope and therefore vulnerable.”

Mammoths, including woolly mammoths, are the extinct ancestors of modern elephants. These huge, tusked mammals roamed the Earth during the Pleistocene and early Holocene epochs, before disappearing roughly 4,000 years ago. Today, discoveries of the remains of these massive creatures can reveal insights into the species—and the ways that early humans interacted with them.

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How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

In summary, the woolly mammoth disappeared due principally to climate-induced habitat alteration and fragmentation at the end of the last Ice Age, with early human hunting playing a significant but less central role.

According to most recent research, what cause of wooly mammoth extinction is not as important as previously believed?

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

This integrated view, supported by paleogenomic, archaeological, and paleoenvironmental data, improves our comprehension of extinction dynamics in prehistoric ecosystems and human influence thereupon [d0fdd296-9dbe-4774-a00b-b9fe01772cb1_668789018; f59dc840-8a51-49ca-a687-2f0a97d918ca_227922426; 7ae40e2b-8a33-4be4-8307-c3c08a1eb04b_761501946; c1e6db3c-0326-4e04-a106-0a4c7aad96bb_386798691].


Greenland is recognized as possessing significant rare earth mineral reserves, positioning it as a potentially critical player in the global rare earth elements (REE) market.

The island’s southern region, particularly around the Kuannersuit (also known as Kvanefjeld) area, holds one of the world's largest deposits of rare earths and uranium after China, containing approximately 10% of the world's rare earth production.

The total reserves in Greenland’s deposits are substantial; for instance, the Tanbreez mine reportedly contains around 19 million tons of rare earth oxides, with about 30% comprising highly sought-after heavy rare earth elements, which are indispensable for manufacturing electric vehicles, wind turbines, and various high-tech devices [95d6394d-1b2c-4be0-8d8e-36dc3c1cf662_711284580; cbf1d513-b13d-46cf-961f-a94c596437cc_781260089].

Greenland's REE deposits include a full spectrum of the 17 rare earth metals (scandium, yttrium, and the 15 lanthanides), each with distinct industrial applications and value.

Processing these minerals is complex, environmentally challenging, and costly due to associated radioactive elements like uranium and thorium often present in the ore.

Greenland’s parliament passed legislation banning uranium mining in 2021, which has halted development in key areas such as Kuannersuit, thereby limiting current extraction activities and deterring some Chinese companies involved in mining through subsidiaries, notably those linked to Shenghe Resources and Greenland Minerals.

This environmental and political caution, led by the pro-environment left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit party since 2021, places regulatory hurdles and uncertainty on large-scale projects despite the rich resources [cbf1d513-b13d-46cf-961f-a94c596437cc_781260089; 841bf963-f828-4462-a15e-2a86a5f30e39_815508424].

This company aims to diversify supply and reduce reliance on volatile markets dominated by China by expanding ore separation facilities in Estonia .

Greenland is recognized as possessing significant rare earth mineral reserves, positioning it as a potentially critical player in the global rare earth elements (REE) market.

Title:

Content: Greenland ban on uranium mining prevents Chinese companies from expanding rare earths
November 13, 2021 17: 33
Eastern Network Television
More News Clips
As part of its Arctic strategy, China has supported the mining of rare earths in Greenland by Australia ’ s Greenland Minerals, a Chinese-owned subsidiary of Shenghe Resources, through the Belt and Road Initiative.
However, Greenland ’ s parliament passed a new law banning uranium mining and halting the development of rare earth deposits at Kuannersuit, the southern tip of Greenland.
China's rare earth mining accounts for more than 70% of the global mining volume, and China's rare earth magnetic processing volume accounts for 90% of the global processing volume.
Sungho Resources, one of the world ’ s largest producers of rare earth materials, acquired a 12.5% stake in Greenland Minerals in 2016, making it the largest shareholder in the latter.
Guanast in southern Greenland is home to the world ’ s second-largest reserves of rare earths and uranium after China, accounting for 10% of the world ’ s rare earth production.
Since former US President Donald Trump proposed the idea of buying Greenland in 2019, the rich rare earth resources of Guanaster in southern Greenland have attracted attention.
Greenland ’ s local parliament was elected early on April 6. In the end, the pro-environmental left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit party won the election, and its leader, Mute Egede, became the new prime minister.
He declared that he would do everything in his power to stop the Guanast Rare Earth Mine project.
In response, Greenland ’ s parliament has passed a new bill aimed at banning exploration of uranium deposits, as well as other radioactive deposits such as thorium, and halting the development of rare earth deposits at the southern tip of Greenland.

What does Greenland's Tanbreez mine contain?

30% of oxides are highly sought after heavy rare earth metals

The island’s southern region, particularly around the Kuannersuit (also known as Kvanefjeld) area, holds one of the world's largest deposits of rare earths and uranium after China, containing approximately 10% of the world's rare earth production.

What percentage does Kuannersuit in southern Greenland account for in global rare earth production?

The total reserves in Greenland’s deposits are substantial; for instance, the Tanbreez mine reportedly contains around 19 million tons of rare earth oxides, with about 30% comprising highly sought-after heavy rare earth elements, which are indispensable for manufacturing electric vehicles, wind turbines, and various high-tech devices [95d6394d-1b2c-4be0-8d8e-36dc3c1cf662_711284580; cbf1d513-b13d-46cf-961f-a94c596437cc_781260089].

Title:

Content: AEX Gold aims to invest in Greenland through its new gold mining project

Traditionally known for its fishing and hunting industries, Greenland is fast becoming the next significant area of exploration for mining businesses. The largest island in the world, Greenland remains one of the least populated areas worldwide with 56,000 citizens, and it has sought to attract local and foreign investment across a number of new projects.

The island’s current position remains complex. A sovereign government, it is positioned under the Danish kingdom who provide grants to support its local economy. To further its independence and bolster its economy to create increased tax revenue, Greenland has embraced the exploration of new mining projects as well as utilising all the renewable and local resources it has to offer.

Rich in rare-earth minerals, gold, iron-ore, uranium, in addition to hydro and wind power, Greenland’s favourable legal framework and robust infrastructure, particularly in South Greenland, have factored into AEX Gold’s vision to explore through its Greenlandic subsidiary, Nalunaq Gold Mine, situated in the Nanortalik Gold belt, Southern Greenland.

Acquiring an existing Exploitation Licence in 2015, the company is at the advanced exploration stage of its Nalunaq property, including the previously operating Nalunaq Gold Mine.   It also holds Exploration Licences at the early exploration stage Vagar and Tartoq properties.

Hosting a high-grade NI 43-101 compliant gold resource estimate of 263k oz (inferred) at 18.7 g/t and a number of regional exploration targets, AEX Gold has undertaken three years of exploration at Nalunaq, developing an updated geological model and an extension of the main vein strike length up to 1km.

“The government is very supportive, so it's about having a sound exploration strategy. We are very much focused on that, as we have an asset package that we think we can grow and create a lot of value,” explains Chief Executive Officer, Eldur Olafsson.

Originating from Iceland, Olafsson has gained extensive experience of the local geography. Focusing on mining projects in Greenland since 2012, he has analysed the country’s potential against the backdrop of environmental responsibilities and associated legalities with partner SRK Exploration Services. Through this process, the business has turned its attentions solely towards gold exploration.

“The known gold deposits in Greenland are in an area where the climate is mild and, given our experience, logistics are relatively easy. Gold opportunities are easier to finance than larger base metals projects and our perception was that we could fully fund projects like these through our support here in Iceland and in the UK market,” he explains.

“We started looking for opportunities in the South Greenland Gold Province and became aware of this historically producing mine. We were attracted by the extremely high-grade potential of the resource and the fact that the project had significant infrastructure in place.  We believed there were significant opportunities to materially improve the mining operation that had been run by previous operators.”

Extensive exploration

Throughout the exploration of high-grade resources, Olafsson is proud to remain hands on and is regularly seen on site. By undertaking various technical studies, AEX has gained the ability to comprehensively analyse similar types of assets with potential.  After acquiring the Nalunaq project in 2015 the company has continued to expand its portfolio. Whilst Nalunaq encompasses the required licence to explore and recommence production at the old gold mine, they own the larger Vagar exploration licence, situated a few kilometres to the west of the mine, where AEX believes the ground is prospective for the discovery of further Nalunaq-type deposits.  In addition, they also own the early stage Tartoq Project to the North West of Nalunaq. Each licence area is at a different stage of exploration which supports AEX’s aim of having a continuous pipeline of projects being brought into production.

“We have a total of 690sqkm of licences in south Greenland and we're the only active listed gold company in Greenland. Previous operators undertook very little forward-looking exploration once the mine was in production.  It's a very under-explored region so we intend to recommence production within the next two years at Nalunaq in order to support our exploration in the larger licences in the next 5-10 years,” he says.

“Iceland is a short distance from Greenland, so logistically it’s good for us. Additionally, in Iceland you need to be really self-sufficient, and the same can be said for those in Greenland. We don't have as many people or the multitude of services that you would have in other countries which encourages you to think creatively,” he adds.

Consequently, the company has sought to maximise efficiency whilst keeping costs down, yet all the time adding increased value across its operations.

By acquiring a high-grade deposit, less material is needed to be broken down, lowering AEX Gold’s carbon footprint. Everything taken out of the mine from underground will be processed and shipped out to a different processing facility, or processed on site adhering to the current environmental guidelines. Historically, electricity has been generated through the use of traditional fossil fuels, something which is steadily changing throughout Greenland.

“We're using oil to put in generators or to power mobile mining equipment which is high cost both in monetary and environmental terms.   Greenland currently has five hydroelectric power plants and they are looking at building more in south Greenland,” says Olafsson.

Seeing huge opportunities, he explains that the use of hydropower and wind power would complement AEX Gold’s operations, not only in its existing exploration activities, but with the implementation of an electric mining fleet with electricity being obtained from local renewable resources.

Providing local opportunities

In the future, it will be essential for Greenland to gain further revenue to unlock opportunities and services for its citizens. This is something Olafsson believes that AEX Gold can help with due to its knowledge of Iceland as it has many similarities to Greenland and has been through a period of comparable change.

“Greenland is in a similar position to Iceland not so long ago. Iceland didn't have a high education rate and wasn’t wealthy compared to other European countries, with economic and cultural activities that were very insular. We are now at the highest level of all parameters in terms of education, wealth per family, etc. and this has stemmed from improving the breadth of schooling and creating opportunities for people to grow and develop outside of the traditional areas of agriculture and fisheries.

“Our aim is that the majority of employees will be Greenlandic, but it will take time. Greenland has a large number of people competing for jobs in the fisheries and tourist centres. It is important that Greenlanders are able to access programmes that will allow them to consider other career options. In Iceland we are importing a lot of people to work in different industries in our country because we don't have enough people. This might be the case for Greenlanders as well if the anticipated growth of the Mining Sector materialises but we want to ensure that, where possible, we use local people first before looking elsewhere.

“The Greenlandic Government provides good support for those who seek education.  There are an increasing number of Greenlandic students attending Danish Universities so that now, for example, we are seeing well qualified Greenlandic geologists available for employment.  There has been a Mining School at Sisimiut for the last 10 years which provides local qualified labour who can take advantage of opportunities in the Mining sector.  You need skilled labour and as we own a mine that was in production for 10 years previously, there is a fair bit of local knowledge that we have been able to use during our exploration work and which we are keen to utilise going forward,” he says.

“We are creating revenue for local communities, creating highly skilled jobs, and are providing benefits where local communities can live better lives and grow as individuals. We need to create opportunities for young people.”

Additionally, by working with local businesses as well as those who have been operating in Greenland for some time, AEX has made a conscious effort to hire companies which can support its growth. AEX have therefore acquired a longstanding relationship with Cartwright Drilling, due to the company’s extensive experience in Greenland and subsequent knowledge of the island’s government systems, processes and practices.

Planning to mine high-grade resources using significant infrastructure already in place, AEX Gold holds extensive licences managed by an experienced team. Previous operations produced between 50,000 to 100,000 ounces a year at 15.4 grams/ton produced and this has provided a benchmark for the company, who will utilise this cash flow to explore the wider region in the long-term.

“We have a five-year plan where we want to get into production at Nalunaq and use the cash generated to fund exploration in the wider district.   We envisage investing a significant amount in exploration assets to provide a portfolio of different deposits that we can bring into production. We are creating a company that has a long-term mission in Greenland to build up local know how to support our aim of ramping up to very profitable production across a number of projects,” notes Olafsson.

“It will create a dramatic effect on the local community and hopefully be a springboard for unlocking much larger potential in Greenland. There are plenty of deposits that have been found, but you have to be able to develop them. You can only do that that with support and cooperation from the local people who believe in your vision.”

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What does Greenland's Tanbreez mine contain?

30% of oxides are highly sought after heavy rare earth metals

Greenland's REE deposits include a full spectrum of the 17 rare earth metals (scandium, yttrium, and the 15 lanthanides), each with distinct industrial applications and value.

Title:

Content: Greenland to mine rare earths in 2024 | Economic Horizontal | DW | 30.07.2023
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Economic stratification
Greenland to mine rare earths in 2024
According to the German "Economic Weekly" reported that a mining company has obtained permission from the Greenland government to mine rare earths on the island.
The company said production could begin next year.
Tanbreez Mining, a mining company, plans to mine rare earths in Greenland next year, according to the Economic Weekly.
“We can start production next year, ” said Greg Barnes, a geologist and owner of the company. Greenland ’ s deputy minister for minerals confirmed to the journal that a mining licence had been issued.
Barnes said the Tanbreez mine "contains more than half of the world's rare earth resources" and has 19 million tons of rare earth oxides.
Of these, 30% are highly favored heavy rare earth elements.
Rare earth contains a total of 17 kinds of metal elements, the properties of each metal are different.
Each metal has a unique industrial value.
Some of them are irreplaceable.
They are used, for example, in the manufacture of electric vehicles or wind turbines.
Last year, about two-thirds of Germany ’ s rare earths came from China. Mining such as rare earths is difficult and often harmful to the environment, as rare earths are often associated with iron ore, and the chemical process of refining often requires the use of acidic substances.
What is Rare Earth?
Barnes, owner of Tanbreez Mining, told Economic Weekly that to start mining for rare earths in Greenland, a factory would be needed to separate rare earths from heterosexual rocks.
Currently there are only such factories in Russia and China.
But one such plant will be built in the United States in the coming months.
There are also plans to build a factory in Europe.
Thanks to technological advances, the equipment that separates rare earths currently costs only $40 million.
According to Barnes, China paid 1.7 billion U.S. dollars for the equipment 13 years ago.
In January, Swedish state-owned mining company LKAB announced the discovery of Europe ’ s largest rare earth deposit to date.
But the company said it would take 10-15 years for the rare earth mine, located in Kiruna in northern Sweden, to be available to the market.
EU Plans to Diversify Rare Earth Supply Chain
(Agence France-Presse, Economic Weekly)
© 2023 Deutsche Welle Copyright Notice: All content in this article is protected by copyright law and may not be used without special permission from Deutsche Welle.
Any misconduct will lead to recovery and criminal prosecution.
DW.COM

Processing these minerals is complex, environmentally challenging, and costly due to associated radioactive elements like uranium and thorium often present in the ore.

Title:

Content: Sweden's new rare-earth metal find likely big deal for Western consumers

Sweden has discovered what is billed as Europe's biggest deposit of rare earth minerals - a crucial component of electronics and clean energy technology - giving a significant boost to the continent's hunt for trade security.

LKAB, the Swedish state-owned mining company, announced Thursday that it found deposits of more than 1 million tonnes of rare earth metals in the country's far northern Lapland province.

Products ranging from smartphones to electric vehicles and even military jets require these rare earth elements, which are not currently mined in Europe, the company said. Much of the world's supply comes from China, which has used them as a geopolitical tool.

LKAB president Jan Mostrom said in a statement that the find could be a "significant building block" for Europe, which faces a "supply problem." But the company also said that it would take at least a decade before the rare earth minerals discovered hit the market.

READ MORE:
* GM reaches supply deals for electric vehicle motor magnets
* Why rare earths are a Five Eyes hot topic
* The race against China's 'rare earths weapon'
* Rare earth could be common in NZ

Here's what to know about this major discovery and what it means for Western consumers.

What are rare earth minerals and where are they found?

Rare earths are not actually that rare. They are a group of 17 chemical elements, composed of scandium, yttrium and lanthanides, according to the US Geological Survey.

But mining rare earth minerals is complex, as supply is not concentrated in one location. Mining them also affects the environment, since their ores can be laced with radioactive materials such as thorium and uranium. Refining the minerals can generate toxic and radioactive waste, which poses environmental and health risks if not properly disposed of.

China hosts the majority of the world's reserve of rare earth minerals and is the world's leading supplier. (The United States was the largest producer several decades ago.) While Brazil and Vietnam have significant reserves, they lag far behind in mining them.

Access to the minerals became an issue in the trade war with China during the administration of US President Donald Trump. Beijing threatened to cut off exports to the United States in 2019 to retaliate against Trump's measures, pushing prices up and prompting Trump to sign an executive order increasing domestic production. The Biden administration has also pushed for investments in that supply chain.

Other countries have also moved to reduce their reliance on China. Australia is spending millions to develop a rare earths mine and processing plant in its Northern Territory.

What are rare earth minerals used for?

Multiple household goods, including televisions, computers, smartphones and lighting use rare earth minerals. Yttrium and europium, for instance, light up iPhone displays and allow them to vibrate.

They are also key elements of US-made defence systems, including night-vision technology, jets and armoured-vehicle alloys.

Rare earth minerals are critical for the global clean energy transition, as they are components of the magnets used in electric vehicles and wind turbines - although recently some companies have developed motors for electric vehicles that do not require rare earths.

What does Sweden's discovery mean for the climate?

LKAB's find was welcomed in Europe, which has faced energy challenges amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The European Union also has a goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050.

In September, a senior EU official said Europe's climate ambitions were at risk without reliable supply chains. "Take China, with its quasi-monopoly on rare earths and permanent magnets and prices rising by 50-90% in the past year alone," wrote Thierry Breton, an EU commissioner. "Supply of raw materials has become a real geopolitical tool."

The European Raw Materials Alliance notes that while the European Union has a massive electric-motor manufacturing sector, "it is almost fully import dependent" when it comes to rare earth permanent magnets.

Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch said Thursday that Europe's independence from Russia and China would begin with this mine.

Political leadership in the continent, she said, "must give the industry the conditions to switch to green and fossil-free production."

The Washington Post

Greenland’s parliament passed legislation banning uranium mining in 2021, which has halted development in key areas such as Kuannersuit, thereby limiting current extraction activities and deterring some Chinese companies involved in mining through subsidiaries, notably those linked to Shenghe Resources and Greenland Minerals.

What countries are invested in Greenland Minerals corp?

What has Greenland's new prime minister Mute Egede pledged to do regarding Kuannersuit rare earth mining?

What is one of the global key REE manufacturers?

Which Greenland rare earth deposits has its Parliament prohibited from developing?

This environmental and political caution, led by the pro-environment left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit party since 2021, places regulatory hurdles and uncertainty on large-scale projects despite the rich resources [cbf1d513-b13d-46cf-961f-a94c596437cc_781260089; 841bf963-f828-4462-a15e-2a86a5f30e39_815508424].

This company aims to diversify supply and reduce reliance on volatile markets dominated by China by expanding ore separation facilities in Estonia .

Title:

Content: A Canadian company has been granted a license to mine rare metals in Greenland.
© AP Photo / David Goldman Greenland ice melt August 3, 2017
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Toronto ’ s New Performance Materials, one of the few rare earth metal processors outside China, has obtained an exploration license in Greenland from Hudson Resources in Vancouver (Canada).
Washington - Sputnik.
“Through a special-purpose entity, NEO plans to explore and develop the Surfertog project to further diversify its global sources of rare earth ore and expand the supply chains that feed the company ’ s rare earth ore separation facility in Estonia, ” it said in a statement.
NEO CEO Constantine Karianopoulos told the New York Times that his goal was to reduce the company ’ s exposure to volatile global crude prices.
NEO buys semi-processed raw materials from Russia, the United States and Australia.
"Collects Rare Minerals"...
China enters the world of "space mining" with the launch of the first robot...
A picture.
The Surftog Carbonatite complex contains mineral deposits rich in neodymium and praseodymium, which are essential components of the rare earth permanent magnet used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, high-efficiency electric motors and pumps that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
NEO also plans to build a new permanent magnet manufacturing plant in Estonia to supply European manufacturers of electric and hybrid vehicles, wind turbines, and energy-efficient electric motors and pumps, the statement said.
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