[en] Neodymium and dysprosium are two rare earth elements (REEs), out of a group of 17 elements with similar chemical properties. Due to their unique properties, REEs gained increasing importance in many new technologies like wind turbines, batteries, lighting, and medical technique. However, the production of REEs requires high material and energy consumption and is associated with considerably environmental burdens e.g. radioactive loaded dust and tailings. Due to the Chinese hegemony regarding REE production and the strong dependency of European industry on Chinese REE exports this paper presents a possible European production chain of REEs based on the mineral Eudialyte found in Norra Karr (Sweden). Because almost 90% of the total mines production of 109,000 t REO equivalents in 2013 [USGS, 2013] occurred in China, the European production is compared to the Chinese route. Bayan Obo is the largest REE deposit in China located near Baotou in Inner Mongolia. Using the Life Cycle Assessment method (LCA), the environmental impacts of both production lines are assessed. Although LCA is a well-known methodology to determine environmental aspects from cradle-to-grave, there are only a few LCA studies available considering REE production, almost all based on process information gathered in the 1990s. This study presents newly estimated data of a possible European Eudialyte based production route collected in a corporate 4-year project together with Siemens AG, RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Julich. The results for the new European process route show reduced environmental burdens although the total REE content in Eudialyte is much smaller than in the Chinese deposit. Especially, the results for dysprosium from Eudialyte outreach those for Bayan Obo, due to the higher content of heavy rare earth elements (HREEs).