Reindeer Blog

Gold, copper and platinum fever continue to pass over Finnmark. Test cores in Kvalsund had chief geologist Kjell Nilsen enthusing

This is Norway’s largest copper find…We’re talking about billions. With today’s prices, we have found values of between eight and ten billion kroner (1.25 bn Euros)

Other materials in a 6 kilometre ridge include platinum, silver and gold. Nilsen told Finnnmark Dagblad said Nussir ASA intends to apply for permission to extract the minerals and if successful, production might start in year 2011, he adds. This is an area of reindeer husbandry and herders have already expressed their concerns about mining activity, as reported in the Reindeer Blog and in NRK, where herder Berit Kristine Hætta stated that reindeer need peace in this area after calving, a claim questioned by a Nussir spokesperson.

Meanwhile, in Karasjok, Store Norsk Gull are drilling 15 test holes (in their search for gold) in Ráitevárri and Rivkkaoggi (the heart of the winter pastures in this area) and reindeer herders are not happy about it, as reported in NRK yesterday.

In a letter to the Områdestyret for East Finnmark reindeer herders Lars Larsen Anti, Marit Kirsten Anti Gaup og Samuel John L. Anti wrote that the company has made no attempt to dialogue with them

This has not happened, and, therefore, we require full stop of the business until Store Norske Gold have met with us and clarified their activities in the area. We demand direct negotiations and clarification from the company.

The reindeer herders are considering engaging a lawyer if activities are not halted.

(Pic-Philip Burgess). With the coming of summer and the migration of reindeer from Finnmarks’s interior to the coast, the local media has lately been filled with stories about the reinplagen. This translates as ‘reindeer plague’, a disease which sounds deadly, but so far, only reindeer have died as a result. It relates to reindeer grazing in urban and agricultural areas where they are not welcome by farmers or some residents. The epicentre of this ‘reinplagen’ seems to be Alta and Hammerfest. Both have been in the media extensively this last two weeks.

Read the rest of this entry »