Radical new government set to allow multinational companies to build vast open-pit uranium mine in Sweden, powering a planned 10 new nuclear reactors
By Boštjan Videmšek
In April 2023, Ida Asp received a letter from the Mining Inspectorate in Stockholm stating that the Bergslagen Metals AS company had been granted an ‘exclusive permit’ to initiate mining research in the Berg municipality. The designated area extended under Asp’s house and the surrounding land. She was also informed that she and her husband would be offered ‘the market price’ for her freshly renovated 18th-century property.
Several hundred other residents have received the same notification – land owners, farmers, foresters and owners of weekend retreats. The Swedish Mineral Act, which was written in the 19th century, states that anyone can apply for a mining permit anywhere under the surface and only needs to pick a metal or mineral with a reasonable chance of being found at the designated location.
The Swedish Mineral Act, which was written in the 19th century, states that anyone can apply for a mining permit anywhere under the surface and only needs to pick a metal or mineral with a reasonable chance of being found at the designated location. According to the Geological Survey of Sweden, Sweden (especially its central lowlands) holds the globe’s greatest reserve of uranium ore. It’s also rich in other metals and minerals such as potassium, copper, nickel and vanadium.
In May 2018, the Swedish parliament passed an amendment to the environmental legislation, which instituted a national ban on uranium ore mining and research. The moratorium was put into effect on 1 August 2018. A survey commissioned by the Swedish government last year suggested dropping the ban. The public discussion of the survey was concluded last month. The Swedish parliament is committed to making a decision on lifting the moratorium by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, the mining companies are continuing to survey for possible open-pit extraction sites across the country. At the start of the survey, the Ministry of Climate and Enterprise stated that the goal was ‘to remove a ban that is not needed’. It went on to add that uranium extraction should be regulated by the same environmental regulations as other metals and minerals. ‘If the European Union is to become the first climate- neutral continent, access to sustainable metals and minerals must be ensured,’ Romina Pourmokhtari, Sweden’s minister for climate and the environment, stated last summer.
Mining interest
The inevitability of the moratorium’s demise was greeted with great enthusiasm from the local proponents of a nuclear renaissance. As was the authorities’ intention to build ten new nuclear reactors by 2045 (two by 2035), while also aiming to entirely de-carbonise Sweden’s electricity in the name of the ‘Green Transition’. Over the next 30 years, Sweden’s current rather high demand for electricity is expected to double to about 300 terawatt- hours. Until now, Sweden needed about 1,500 tonnes of uranium yearly to keep its six nuclear reactors running. In the decades to come, that is estimated to rise to between 3,000 and 4,000 tonnes.
According to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), the world consumes 67,000 tonnes of uranium each year; the EU’s annual usage amounts to 12,500 tonnes. According to the WNA, 65 nuclear reactors are currently being built across 16 countries, while 90 further reactors are in the planning stage. China is once more leading the field.
The WNA predicts a 33 per cent increase in uranium usage over the next decade, correlating to an estimated 27 per cent growth in nuclear reactor capacities. Sweden is a member of the Euratom organisation, which supplies uranium to its members while also establishing a certain degree of supply chain diversification. Sweden has been importing its supply of nuclear fuel for many years. The country currently doesn’t possess the means for uranium enrichment, though that, too, is planned to change.
The most recent available Euratom data pertains to 2022. That is, before several key geopolitical upheavals and their impacts on the global uranium supply chains. According to the data, the EU imported most of its uranium from Kazakhstan (26.2 per cent), Niger (25.4 per cent), Canada (22 per cent) and Russia (16.9 per cent). In the wake of the Russian aggression in Ukraine and Niger’s military coup in July 2023, when the local junta expelled the French and handed control of the uranium mines to Russia, much has changed in the global uranium marketplace.
In September 2022, Sweden experienced a significant political shift. The left-of-centre Social Democrats narrowly lost to a right-wing bloc, including the hardline, anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party. The new regime quickly brought in tough immigrant- deportation measures and a reduction in asylum quotas. In what it called a Green Transition, it also pushed forward its election promises to introduce more nuclear power and, at the same time, move away from wind power development, of which the country had been a pioneer. Bizarrely, it also scrapped a highly effective tax on the use of single-use plastic bags.
It also encouraged the global mining industry. Numerous international mining corporations have already shown a great deal of interest in Swedish uranium extraction. Their attention is focused on Jämtland – one of Sweden’s largest but least populated counties. Around 13,000 people live in this belt of central Sweden known for its vast forests, mountains and lakes. The most proactive company thus far has been Canadian District Metals, which was recently granted the uranium research and extraction rights for the Viken region of Jämtland.
Australian company Aura Energy is set to extract uranium ore along Sweden’s Häggån River in Jämtland, where potassium, zinc, molybdenum and vanadium are also to be mined.
Growing protests
‘No, hell no! I will not allow them to dig under my house!’ Asp declared, seated at the massive wooden table in her home, where she aims to live a life of self-sufficiency. Next to her house, there’s a kennel holding ten Siberian husky dogs. A number of sheep are bleating behind a fence, accompanied by an Icelandic horse. A pair of dogs and several cats have the run of the house. ‘As soon as I received the letter, I started making calls,’ she went on. ‘People were furious. The first time I organised a meeting, 100 people showed up. Even those who don’t really get bothered about the environment were vehemently opposing the mining project. Almost the entire local community came out against it.’
Soon after the arrival of the first letters, the then- head of Aura Energy paid a visit to Oviken. A meeting with the local community was arranged, with more than 300 people showing up. ‘He was completely unprepared!’ Asp recalled.
Boštjan Videmšek
‘Many of our basic questions simply drew a blank! Even people who came to the meeting hoping that the mining projects could bring some good to the region got the impression something shady was going on. And that was why they, too, turned against the authorities and the mining corporations. All of us were getting the impression we were about to be duped. The so-called “market price” for our land is ridiculously low. We calculated the sale would only bring back half of our investment. We are set to stay. The only way we get moved is by force.’
Asp said that recent shifts in Swedish politics have made her fear for the future. She said the authorities in Stockholm are currently preparing a veto on local- community decisions, which Asp views as an assault on what only recently used to be a world leader in democracy and progressive environmental policies.
‘If such a thing can happen in Sweden,’ she said, shaking her head, ‘then you can only imagine what goes on in the rest of the world.’
The number of people protesting the mining project has rapidly increased. Their cause was strengthened when Naturskyddsforeningen (the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation), joined the fight, bringing the support of its 200,000 members.
‘We immediately knew something was very wrong,’ Katja Kristoffersson, head of communication at the local branch of Naturskyddsforeningen in the regional capital of Östersund, told me. ‘We had to react. We’ve been able to obtain an application submitted by one of the foreign companies to obtain the permit to extract uranium in these parts. We believe we can still stop the project, which really has no connection with our green transition. It is a gross form of misleading the public in the interest of foreign corporations.’
‘We have lots of ideas on how to fight back,’ she added. ‘We’re preparing a report drawing on the government’s own position from 2020, when the authorities clearly stated that this form of mining was unacceptable. The core of our campaign is the threat the mining would bring to the environment – above all, to the water. The planned mining projects are located in the immediate vicinity of Storsjön Lake, Sweden’s fifth-largest lake, which supplies water to 60,000 people. Also at risk are the forests and the exceptionally fertile farmlands – we are 85 per cent self-sufficient when it comes to food here! But we fear that everything is about to get poisoned – the water, the forests, the soil, our food, everything! In many places where uranium was extracted from alum shale, as it would be here, this was precisely what happened.’
One of those who joined the battle to stop uranium mining in the Jämtland region is Urban Tirén. The long-serving head of the paediatric department at the hospital of Östersund. He also received one of the infamous letters.
‘My motivation for stopping the project is simple,’ Tirén explained. ‘As a doctor, when children get sick with cancer or other severe diseases, I always do everything in my power to help them. I never give up. And mining in the alum shale is like cancer. It only spreads and spreads, causing great damage. The mining in alum shale has not been proven safe for the environment in any place in the world.’
He fears a single mining permit could set off a domino effect. The entire region could be turned into one vast open mining excavation site. ‘In my younger days, I spent a lot of time working as a doctor in the Central African Republic. I can recall the extent of devastation the mining companies left in their wake,’ Tirén continued.
Indigenous fears
The search for rare metals extends into Sweden’s far north and the Indigenous Saami community is afraid that uranium mining will come at a heavy price to the traditional lands and lifestyles, and a possibility of the degradation of their natural environment and their health.
The Saami inhabit the region of Sápmi, which covers much of northern Norway, Sweden and Finland, and northwest Russia. They mostly rely upon semi-nomadic reindeer herding. In recent years, they’ve already faced the expansion of wind turbines through their historical land, which has disrupted their traditional herding routes. Extensive mining in their lands could be catastrophic for their lifestyle.
‘Uranium mines in the traditional lands of the Saami risk having serious consequences for the Saami culture. A mine not only affects reindeer herding, hunting and fishing, but also the relationship with the land
and nature,’ said Kerstin Andersson, board member of Amnesty Sápmi (part of Amnesty International Sweden).
‘For the Saami, the land is not an economic resource. It is a legacy from our ancestors that we have to manage for future generations.’
She is scathing about the impact of the Green Transition. ‘For the Saami, it is about green colonialism, with more mines, more industrial areas, with wind power, roads and power lines and forestry, with clear-cutting. The land is shrinking and the food for the reindeer is disappearing.’
‘Some international mining corporations have already chosen locations for uranium mining – also on Saami territory. Mining and reindeer herding do not go together. Absolutely not. Mining turns arable land into stone. Uranium mining could destroy our livelihoods, the entire food chain, water, our way of life, our existence,’ Åsa Larsson Blind from the Saami Council, a voluntary non–governmental Saami organisation, told me.
Geopolitical turmoil
According to the International Energy Agency, the global yearly demand for critical metals and minerals should rise by 7.5 million tonnes by 2040, jumping to a total of 28 million tonnes.
Countries around the world are eager to secure their supplies of such crucial raw materials. The disruption in global markets following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent embargoes amplified such fears.
The pressure to find supplies not dependent on Russia and China is leading to other areas to be considered for such mining. An example is Greenland, where the melting ice hides enormous quantities of natural riches, including uranium.
As things stand, uranium mining is not permitted in Greenland. However, local authorities are finding it more and more difficult to fend off ever more aggressive suitors. With China and Russia on one side and the USA on the other, the Arctic front is now firmly in place.
Over the last three years, the price of uranium on global stock exchanges has doubled. To list just one example: the value of a uranium mine located in Canada’s Athabasca Basin has been estimated at US$4 billion, even though it will only become operative in 2028, when Canada could overtake Kazakhstan as the world’s leading uranium supplier.
The Canadian mining company District Metals turned its attention to Sweden in 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic. Until 2022, the world uranium market remained rather static, so at first, the company didn’t invest much. For the most part, it was content to bide its time.
However, in the wake of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, both the geopolitical and economic situation changed. Given the European dependence on Russian gas and the resultant scramble for alternatives, nuclear energy was about to experience a renaissance. District Metals began exploring new mining options in Scandinavia.
‘When we saw the situation in Sweden, we started looking for areas where uranium ore could be found,’ I was told by the company’s CEO, Garreth Ainsworth, a geologist and one of the industry’s best- known figures. Among other ventures, District Metals applied for an exploration and mining permit in the Viken area, where the initial surveys showed large uranium supplies were available.
‘The permit was cheap, on account of the moratorium. We paid $10,000 for a “mineral license”, gaining 68 per cent of the Viken deposit. We later also bought the remaining 32 per cent,’ Ainsworth explained. He is firmly convinced that the Swedish government will lift the uranium-mining moratorium by the end of the year.
‘We’re certainly prepared for the lifting of the moratorium,’ Ainsworth said. ‘When it happens, things are certain to run smoothly, given the Swedish legislature. The process is rather quick. In Sweden, you can get a permit in six weeks. In Canada, the same process can take at least two years.’
A recent report by the Swedish Ministry of Climate and Enterprise, prior to taking the formal decision to lift the moratorium, has been warmly welcomed by the mining industry. ‘The report represents a legislative framework for the lifting of the moratorium. This is not only about mining the uranium, but also about processing and enriching it,’ Ainsworth explained.
Ainsworth predicted that, after the lifting of the moratorium, Sweden will quickly build up supply chains – from mining to processing to enrichment to making nuclear fuels. In his vision, the waste, too, would get ever more efficiently recycled.
‘In our unstable times, this is crucial. It has gotten quite chaotic out there. Niger, which supplied the European market with 25 per cent of its uranium ore, is now controlled by the Russians. The CEO of Kazakhstan’s Kazatomprom company publicly stated it is now much harder for them to send uranium to the West, given all the pressure from China and Russia.’
A strictly political decision
‘This is not a green transition, it is a grey one,’ said Greenpeace campaigner Carl Schlyter, who represented the Swedish Green Party in the European Parliament from 2004 to 2014.
‘They’re trying to convince us that some of the environment needs to be sacrificed to save the environment. The solutions they’re offering are false and dangerous. They always seem to find new excuses to exploit natural resources.
‘This is not only about the moratorium,’ he continued. Our government also proposed the banishment of local-community veto rights. Such rights could certainly thwart their plans. But this doesn’t mean the government will succeed. Many of the local mayors are opposed to the lifting of the moratorium, since they realise what damage could be caused to the environment.’
Schlyter believes that the reasons behind ending the moratorium are strictly political. ‘In Sweden, the nuclear question is a matter of political prestige. You have to realise that during the last election campaign, the [now] governing parties heavily emphasised the bolstering of our country’s nuclear capacities.’
Expanding Sweden’s nuclear capacities was the key campaign promise and one of the first pledges made by the new right-wing government.
‘They sold us the idea that the energy crisis will be solved by building ten new nuclear reactors,’ Schlyter explained. He pointed out that the vast cost of such a large infrastructure investment doesn’t make economic sense as the price of nuclear energy is never going to be cheaper than renewable sources. ‘The government still intends to allocate €35 billion in subventions for the construction of the reactors, as well as €55 billion in cheap loans. This is not about economics, this is about pure politics.’
Schlyter’s main concern is how ever-greater quantities of public funds get allocated to nuclear energy, while renewable sources are undernourished. Just before the new year, for example, the Swedish authorities halted the construction of 13 new wind turbines in the Baltic Sea.
‘As far as renewable energy was concerned, we used to be one of the most successful countries in the world,’ Schlyter lamented. ‘When the government got hell-bent on the nuclear option, a certain vacuum was created – one that could last for the next 20 years!’
Staying put
Åsa Gustafsson owns a farm near Oviken, a homestead with 65 cows and calves. She’s the fourth generation of her family to work the surrounding 150 hectares of exceptionally fertile soil.
Her homestead is located right next to Storsjön Lake. Gustafsson’s farm is entirely dependent on the lake water.
‘The first representatives of mining companies started coming here with drilling machinery 30 years ago,’ she told me. ‘They were looking for uranium – among other things. They did a lot of drilling, including some on our land. But then we were left in peace until April 2023, when we got the letter.’
Showing me around one of the neat stables on her farm, Gustafsson’s voice had to contend with a cacophony of moos. ‘What scares me the most is the water situation,’ she said.
All the mining sites are located slightly above the lake, so the pollution will be running downward. And all the rivers, brooks and underground water flow into that lake, as well as over the local farmland. Sooner or later, some sort of contamination is guaranteed. I’m certainly not going to sign anything. I will be staying right here.’
