La finlande et l’industrie minière
Talvivaara - from benefactor of struggling rural area to environmental enemy No.1
By Veera Luoma-aho and Anssi Miettinen
One euro – that was the price of the whole deal.
It was February 27th, 2004 between two and three in the afternoon. Mining engineer Pekka Perä took a one-euro coin and extended it to a representative of Outokumpu at the headquarters of the metallurgical company in Niittykumpu in Espoo.
The excavation rights of the nickel deposit in Talvivaara switched owners. The Outokumpu negotiator appeared perplexed. What should he do with the coin? Pekka Perälä knew. He bought the coin back for two euros and put it in his safe.
Perä had a mind for history, even though it came out only a few years later that this was a real lucky coin. The deal was to make Perä one of Finland’s richest men.
For a while he was hailed as the champion of the whole suffering region of Kainuu. Nobody since President Urho Kekkonen has done so much good for Kainuu. But then came the smell.
Stop Talvivaara - kansanliike vesistöjen puolesta
http://www.stoptalvivaara.org/fi/newsstream.html
TALVIVAARA LEAK - NEWS STREAM
After a short essential introduction, you can find links to latest news and resources in english:
For years the local people and activists have brought up the fundamental violation of environmental legislation in case of Talvivaara:
the extraction of uranium has been part of the operation of the mine from the very beginning, but uranium wasn’t mentioned by a single world in Talvivaara’s environmental impact assesment procedure - and there was not a single word about uranium in the environmental permit that was granted. Nevertheless Talvivaara has been allowed to extract hundreds of tonnes of uranium per year from black schist ore - since 2009.
We encourage shareholders not to support the poisoning and ruining of our lakes and rivers.
And we encourage international media to pay close attention to what is really happening in Finland.
Finland’s biggest chemical catastrophe in history | Greenpeace International
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/chemical-spill-finland/blog/42935
Blogpost by Brian Fitzgerald - November 9, 2012
Greenpeace Finland is bearing witness and taking samples at a toxic spill that began on Sunday in the north of the country. The Talvivaara metal mine, owned and operated by Talvivaara Mining Company plc, has been leaking water containing high concentrations of nickel and uranium at a rate of between 5000-6000 cubic metres an hour. It is believed that the leak took place when the mine’s waste-water pool was breached on Sunday.
Mining Boom Underway in Finland in the Search for Mineral Deposits
Klondike in Lapland Mining Companies Swarm to Finland’s Far North
SPIEGEL ONLINE 11/02/2012
By Renate Nimtz-Köster
Mining companies are flocking to northern Finland as new deposits of gold, nickel and other minerals promise vast profits. But the area’s fragile wetland ecosystem is paying the price. Conservationists are so far fighting a losing battle.
