"Stop mining" - A look inside the Repparfjord protesters' camp 

The environmental youth organisation Natur og Ungdom (NU) has together with Sami activists had people at the camp in Repparfjorden for more than three weeks already.

“When we heard that the blasting work was starting at the site, we drove here right away and started our camp,” says Helene Sofie Smit with Nature and Youth. Smit is press spokesperson of the camp and has been here from start.

The copper mine, to be developed by Nussir, is located in Repparfjord, not far from North Cape and will be the northernmost mine on mainland Europe.

Initially Nature and Youth got the work halted through dialogue with the mining company, but after a few days the company continued their work. Then the young activists blocked the work with their bodies, chaining themselves to excavators and other machines at the site. 

A couple of days went by before the police started to remove the activists, who each night came back to block the project again. 

After a week, Natur og Ungdom welcomed a promising interim victory. The municipality of Hammerfest confirmed that the area of the blasting work was beyond what Nussir had building permission for – something that the activists had said from the start. 

“This last week we have waited for the mining company to receive their building permit and kept watch that they don’t continue their illegal work,” Smit says. 

The municipality then greenlighed the project during and Nussir made ready to restart drilling and blasting.

Helene Sofia Smit, however, argues that the company still don’t have what’s legally necessary. “They have never made an agreement with the reindeer herders.”

Life at camp is communal. Roles for the day are assigned the night before. Washing dishes, cooking food, painting banners, building stuff, fishing, driving to the store, among other things keep the group busy during the day.

Currently they are also mobilising people for the monthiversary of the camp, the 15th of July. The plan is to have a festival as well as a public community meeting. Updates on the festival as well as other current issues are discussed on the camp’s nightly general assemblies. Direct democracy in action, where issues are debated, and voted on if needed. 

The slogan for the action camp is “give your summer for Repparfjorden”, but Smit says that it hasn’t been a big sacrifice. 

“Personally there’s nowhere else I would rather be. When you’re at the right place and do the right thing, it creates a sense of community that hardly anything can beat.”

But it has been tough as well. “We slept a week or two under the open sky and had to stay up late and get up early just to be carried away by the police. We spent time in cells at the Hammerfest police station and felt the whole time that we’re much smaller than the mining company,” Smit says.

In times of doubt they find comfort in the community. Protests against the project isn’t a new thing. The people’s movement for Repparfjorden has already been around for seven years.

Smit sends her regards to the mining company and its investors. “Anyone considering investing in this mining project should know that they are funding possible human rights violations. They are investing in a mine that will blast into reindeer calving grounds and will come at the expense of a national salmon fjord.”

“We are not going to give up. We recommend that you either get out of this project or put the rest of the money into something else.”

The day after the Barents Observer leaves, police again removed some of the activists that were blocking the construction machines at the mining area again. 

Nussir did not respond to a request for comment.