Ann: Vittangi Graphite Mine Appeals Update, page-56

In my line of work I regularly go up against opposition to some project we are trying to deliver. Occasionally we'll see what you could describe as "disingenuous resistance". That is when it's pretty clear the stakeholder has no moral objections, they just want to squeeze money out of us. I've seen entire projects shelved because of bath faith negotiations involving other stakeholders with leverage asking for obvious cash sweetners to 'win them over'. I've seen other projects where the company would spend 2x more on an alternative solution rather than accept a negotiation in bad faith. Doesn't matter how affordable it is, it's a precedent you want to be very careful with because it opens the proverbial pandoras box for all future negotiations.

But with that said, Talga has been quite open about their willingness to offer up some compensation to the Sami villages. I'm not sure where that began, but is it possible this compensation is Talga's imitative? It doesn't strike me as a "secret hush-money to go away" tactic, looks like it might be more of a "friendly charitable donation to go away". Similar but different. If Talga is open about it and the government endorses it, that'll make it harder for the media to criticize. If more "impacted" towns are compensated in the future then I honestly think that is OK within reason. If it actually happened then I'm sure Talga will find every way to make it a PR positive and not a PR negative, get some return on that investment so to speak.