In 2009, the Australian company Talga Resources began investigating the graphite discovery Nunisvárri, but now it is the battery node company Talga AB that holds the exploration permits for the deposit. The plan is for the graphite to be delivered to a test factory that is partly built in Luleå.
Reindeer grazing area
The area is a reindeer grazing area for Talma Sami village and the Sami community has opposed the mining plans from the beginning. But according to the court, it is possible to combine mining activities with reindeer husbandry on the grounds that the actual mining of the graphite will take place during spring, summer and autumn. Not in winter when the reindeer are grazing in the area. Nils Johánas Allas, chairman of Talma, is saddened.
"Yesterday was the first day of spring, today is the second and nice weather and then there is this bad news. They will have other businesses there during the winter, where you can't move the reindeer and have them grazing there," he says.
What are your thoughts on appealing to a higher court?
"I don't know yet, we'll see when we've talked together.
The company is applying for several areas
In this area, the company is applying for a processing concession for four areas, but only one has applied for an environmental permit for one of them, and that is the one for which it received a permit in the judgment. In Vittangi, mining opponents are disappointed.
"That's what the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, the rest of us and the Sami communities have said they should have searched all areas at the same time and make an overall assessment of everything, instead of just looking for one, it's tactical then. It is probably not to the advantage of those of us who feel that this is not something we want in our vicinity, says Hanna Råman.
"There are such large areas that are not included in the assessment, the whole area down towards the Vittangi River is not included and that is where the sensitive areas really are," adds Ulrik Lidström as they sit in the sun in Vittangi right next to the river.
Progress at different stages in the process
To the criticism why the company has not applied for environmental permits for all four areas that it is prospecting, Per-Erik Lindvall, Chairman of the Board of Talga AB, replies that they are in different stages and Nunasvara, for which the company has today received a permit, is the most advanced in that process.
"It may be a little bit based on you, I won't say ignorance, but you are not well informed about how to push forward a mining project. We have other deposits that we have not come as far with and eventually, hopefully, production will come sometime in the future, but we are not there today, says Per-Erik Lindvall, who is very happy and satisfied with the verdict.
"It's a kind of finish line after several years of intensive investigative work that is finishing today, and the verdict has essentially been completed, now I've quickly read these 200 pages, but it seems that we can be very pleased with the outcome," he says.
Will you meet the requirements when it comes to reindeer herding and water quality in the Torne and Kalix rivers?
"This is our complete ambition, and our investigation material shows that with the technology we have chosen, we are well placed to do so," replies Per-Erik Lindvall.