TLG - Media, page-5782

It turns out the Cementa case is an interesting one and I have been reading a bit of social media commentary from Swedes in Norrbotten. Of course this is some pretty anecdotal information. But I wanted a bit of vox pop and I don't really know any Swedes to ask such questions.

@corsors has touched on this a bit already, but surprisingly there has been quite a bit of backlash for Cementa and Kaunis. All from citizens who state that jobs are required in the north. Their argument is that lack of growth and investment in the region is resulting in brain-drain which is having an effect on the area as a whole. There are many parallels and similarities to regional and rural cities here in Australia.

Back to Cementa, the production of cement is a very carbon intensive process. I learnt that it accounts for 8% of the worlds CO2 emissions. But Cementa are targeting some degree of carbon neutrality for their cement by 2030. One user pointed out how Sweden could "just get cement from other countries." To which one user responded with this quote, which got quite a few likes:

"And who fills up what LKAB and Cementa produce today. If they close down their operations. Well countries with no or poor environmental targets. You have to think holistically. And not live in a bubble. Sweden will be hit even harder by emissions and CO2. Because the emissions move with the wind. Sweden is not isolated in a dome from the rest of the world. What the Chinese emit, you breathe in after a while."

My point from all of this was to get in the mind of the locals. I believe constitutents would be in favour of investment in a mine as well as downstream processing. But this issue now rests on the shoulders of politicians and bureaucrats (so-called dickheads with pens). I also get the impression that citizens are growing tired of the dickheads with pens, who have endless deliberations while their constituents suffer.

Like I said, all this information is pretty anecdotal of course. But my belief is that we are entering crunch time for minerals/materials and the green energy transformation. MT has done a great job at slowly and carefully checking the boxes. I remain cautiously optimistic.