There has been a surge in the number of mining projects and a massive expansion of areas under mining concession in the island of Ireland, Fennoscandia and across Europe in recent years.
As much as 27 percent of the Republic of Ireland and 25 percent of Northern Ireland is under mining concession, with a single company, Dalradian Resources, holding concessions for 10 percent of the latter’s land area.
Read YLNM’s new island of Ireland and Fennoscandia research dispatches now.
Meanwhile, Nordic nations have issued mining exploration permits covering millions of hectares of land, including in Sapmí, the homeland of the Sámi Indigenous People.
Re-frame
Up to 11 percent of Finland’s land area is under different types of concessions – 2,122 km2 under active exploration and 25,361km2 under reservation, and more under exploration and reservation applications.
In Norway, 6,698 km2 is currently under exploration and in Sweden 10,290 km2. Metal production in Finland and Sweden has increased substantially over the last 10 years.
Two new research dispatches from the campaign organisation Yes to Life, No to Mining Network (YLNM) explore how these nations – and the mining industry – are pursuing expansion.
They are doing this by re-framing metal mining as a solution to climate change in order to facilitate domestic extraction of so-called ‘strategic’, ‘critical’ and ‘transition’ minerals required for renewable energy, transportation, military and digital technologies.
The most pressing question isn’t where new mining should happen. It is how we can immediately and dramatically reduce the need for new mines.
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