Arctic Yearbook 2015 | Page 134

134 Arctic Yearbook 2015 ideology and a mining industry still dominated by state owned companies. Today Russia mainly struggles with a lack of institutional capacities for governance. Finland and Sweden are Nordic welfare states, with strong state institutions that have experienced a recent mining boom, mostly dominated by international companies, and have had to adjust with recent and extensive regulatory changes. Finland, for example, throughout its mining history has been until now dominated by state-owned companies; with the introduction of international companies came also recent changes to mining and environmental regulations. Greenland has some history of mining, mostly controlled by Denmark, but now is an emerging mining country that recently received larger resource management autonomy and has had to develop its own governance framework. Finland, Russia and Sweden are some of the key metal and mining producing countries in the European Arctic (Kokko 2014, Government offices of…2013). In 2011, Sweden accounted for 80-90% of iron ore in the EU (SveMin 2012: 3). The Russian Arctic zone is a traditional mining region producing a vast range of mineral commodities (Dobretsov & Pokhilenko 2010; Kaminsky et al. 2014; Matveev 2015). It is ranked among the world’s leading producers of nickel (12% of total world output), aluminum (8%), copper (6%), diamonds (29%), and gold (8%) (EU Mineral Statistics 2013). While Greenland does not currently have operating mines, it has vast mineral reserves that have drawn increasing interest both globally and from the EU. Greenland has ambitious plans to expand their mining industry (Government of Greenland 2014). Arctic mining industry in the national context Finland During the 2000s, the mining industry in Finland experienced a new “boom” (Kokko 2014). The previous prosperous era of mining in Finland ended in the late 1980s and was led by the state-owned mining company Outokumpu. In 1994, Finland joined the European Economic Area (EEA) and the Finnish mining sector was opened up to international actors, but it was not until the beginning of 2000s that the country really began to draw the interest of international mining companies (Hernesniemi et al. 2011: 137). Today international companies dominate the mining sector (Kokko 2014: 15). Geographically speaking, mining activities are concentrated in the Eastern and Northern parts of Finland, which typically suffer from a declining population and a lack of economic opportunities. In 2013, there were 12 metal ore mines in operation in Finland, with the primary products consisting of chrome, zinc, nickel, cobalt, gold and silver. Major mining projects located north of the Arctic Circle include Kittilä, Pahtavaara and Kevitsa. In addition, Anglo American Ltd plans to open a mine in Sodankylä. The Kittilä gold mine, operated by Agnico Eagle, is the largest gold mine in Europe. At Pahtavaara gold mine production was halted in 2014 when the mining company Lappland Goldminers AB, filed for bankruptcy. Of the mines in Finland, Kevitsa copper and nickel mine has been evaluated as the mine providing most employment and with the vastest impact on the regional economy (Laukkonen & Törmä 2014). Governance of Sustainable Mining in Arctic Countries