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Talma against Talga "A tough and difficult match"Updated today 22:00 Published today 18:26
During Tuesday, the main negotiation for Talga's mining plans at Njunisvárri south outside Vittangi begins. The so-called green transition is opposed to the Sami's right to reindeer grazing.
- It is only on Thursday that Sami village representatives get to have their say, important voices and nothing stands above the rights of the indigenous people, underlines lawyer Camilla Wikland.
The Land and Environmental Court at Umeå district court has called for a main hearing in Luleå. For ten years, the area has been in the sights of the company that now wants to mine graphite outside Vittangi. It is now and four weeks from now that the court will decide whether the company will receive an environmental permit for its planned mining operations, an operation that could affect the Talma Sami village for decades to come.
Graphite ore of 100,000 tons per year for 25 years is what the permit review applies to, graphite that is planned to be used in electric car batteries, so-called battery anodes.
- It will be a tough match but no less an intervention in nature for the affected Sámi, says lawyer Camilla Wikland, who represents the affected reindeer-herding Sámi in the area but says she has strong arguments.
- We have an indigenous people who are clearly protected by the international conventions and that is our main issue here. We have to somehow pick up and sharpen our argument further and add this perspective of it being a green transition, because that argument is going to come very strongly from the mining company's side in this case. But we know how to argue and we have strong arguments that it is still the reindeer industry that should be allowed to go first and it is because they are protected by the international conventions.
Protests
Many in Vittangi who are critical of the mine establishment want to be there.
- It is typical, it is kept far from the place where we live, few can take time off from work and go down to Luleå, but there are many of us who do not want to see a mine here, says Hanna Råman in Vittangi, who hopes for clear facts about how the land and the water in the area is affected by the exploitation.
On the company's website, 150 new jobs are promised if the company, together with mining, also operates a factory producing so-called battery anodes.The Nature Conservation Society for both Sweden and Finland will be on site in Luleå.
Previous criticism
The company's strategy of starting with permits for one area and then expanding as they go has drawn criticism.
- It has been said from the company's side that you should not have to take into account the mining establishment that they themselves intend to continue with, which is very closely connected, and we will argue strongly that the court must take it into account as well, especially when it is the same company and we know, because the Sámi village is involved in that process, that it is close until there is a further application for a processing concession and an application for an environmental permit, says Camilla Wikland.
But Per-Erik Lindvall, chairman of the board for Talga, has previously explained his thoughts regarding the exploitation and extraction of graphite:
- It is possible to find technical solutions that create security in that we will not affect the water in any way that is harmful to the environment. The important thing for us is that the court gets to see our documents now and that we are open and transparent to the outside in this, Per-Erik Lindvall told SVT Sápmi this summer.
The Land and Environmental Court will decide the matter after a month's hearing."
Source:
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/sapmi/talma-samebys-kamp-en-viktig-men-svar-match
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