Risking fjords for profit? Norway’s dirty mining story

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Risking fjords for profit? Norway’s dirty mining story

By Tina Andersen from Young Friends of the Earth Norway (with Ragnhild Freng Dale, PhD candidate at Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge).

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There is danger for the beauty of Repparfjord © Helene Lind Jensen, Young Friends of the Earth Norway.

The mining industry is growing in northern Europe. Sweden, Finland and Norway all want to start new mines. Environmental groups have protested strongly against the new mining plans. They are protesting against the destruction of nature and the ecosystems. The Norwegian government is now considering two mining plans. They both put the rocks and rubbish from the mine under water. Not everyone agrees with it.

Not everyone gets rid of mine waste like this. In fact, Norway is one of only five countries to use it. More and more people think this is not the best way and are stopping it.

In the Repparfjord, in Finnmark, in the north east of Norway, a mining company Nussir ASA is planning a copper mine. The waste from the mine will be put in the fjord, a total of 30 million tonnes of mining waste over 20 years. Environmental groups are worried. Many marine research institutes say the plans are bad for the environment.

In Førdefjorden, Nordic Mining plans to open a mine and put the waste in the fjord. Like Repparfjord, Førdefjorden is a ‘national salmon fjord’ for wild salmon fish. The law should protect it. This means that the fjord is too valuable for salmon fish farming and so it will open for mining.

But submarine tailing deposits in the past had bad effects on the ecosystems and the local economies. Forty years ago, the mining company Folldal Verk had a mine which put waste in the Repparfjord, and nearly all the fish disappeared. The quality of water in the fjord is only now back to normal but now there is a new risk.

Repparfjord and Førdefjorden have strong underwater currents. Scientists from the Institute of Marine Research are worried that the pollution will travel far away. If this happens, it will affect the fish, damage the food chain and the ecosystem in the fjord.

The waste disposal was allowed after reports which did not consider the strong currents in the fjords. Two new reports by Sintef and Det Norske Veritas (DNV) disagreed. But the government has not changed its decision to allow wastage disposal in Repparfjord and Førdefjorden.

And now the plans are much bigger. Nussir said it has now found double the amount of copper ore - more than 66 million tonnes over a period of 30 to 40 years. Nordic Mining plan to mine up to 250 million tonnes of minerals from the Engebø mountain. These numbers only include the mineral and not the waste. In the Engebø mountain people think only about five per cent of the mountain has pure mineral, but the rest will be put in the fjord as waste.

Environmental groups questioned this and are making more protests to stop the plans. The indigenous Sami population around Repparfjord are also making protests. The Sami say that the mining will be a problem because their reindeer feed there. The indigenous Sami have rights like hunting, fishing, and keeping reindeer. The mining is a danger to the land they have a right to use.

Protesters are not against the idea of mines but are worried about these plans because of the problems in the reports. Putting millions and millions of tonnes of waste in fjords is not a good idea and not sustainable. There are other solutions. They may be more expensive but that is a small price to pay for the possible damage.

NOW READ THE ORIGINAL: http://newint.org/blog/2014/10/02/norway-fjords-mining-waste/(This article has been simplified so the words, text structure and quotes may have been changed)