Eco-activists block entrance to Europe’s northernmost copper mine project
The activists are demanding that permission to dump tailings into the Repparfjord should be withdrawn because of the negative impact on the marine life and coastal indigenous Sami culture.
More than 70 people from all over Norway entered the mining facility in the early hours on Saturday. They are now blocking both the road to the construction area and the entrance of the tunnel to the underground mining operation currently under development.
The project to develop a sub-surface mine is controversial because the tailings will be dumped into the Repparfjord, a national salmon fjord important for Sámi who fish in the northernmost part of Norway.
The Norwegian government’s decision to allow the mining company Nussir to extract copper from underneath a mountain plateau in the Hammerfest municipality triggers a tricky environmental dilemma between protecting the pristine Arctic nature versus providing the world with minerals highly needed for the green shift.
Authorities have granted the Nussir mining company permission to deposit up to two million tons of excess rock annually into the fjord.
The copper is needed for the green shift, the government argued when the permission to dump the tailings was granted.
Resources at the Nussir deposit are estimated at 74 million tonnes of copper ore, by far the largest copper resource in Norway.
Environmentalists, however, argue that dumping at sea is done because it is the cheapest available solution, although it is harmful to the marine environment. Norway is one of only four countries in the world allowing the mining industry to use fjords as dumpsites for tailings. The others are Indonesia, Turkey and Papua New Guinea.
"A lot has changed in the last 10 years since the discharge permit was granted," says Helene Sofie Smit, a board member with Nature and Youth.
"New studies show that several spawning grounds for coastal cod will be severely damaged by the marine dumping," she says and adds: "Wild salmon have become permanent fixtures on the red list. Now it is more important than ever that we manage to put nature above short-term profit."
One of the activists blocking the entrance to the mine is Sámi artist Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen. She makes clear that the Nussir mine is not at all welcome in 2026.
The mining projects completely destroy the future basis for coastal Sámi culture and fjords that are alive.
