Published: December 13, 2019
Pro Ylläs, Ylläksen ystävät Yyry ry and Kansalaisten kaivosvaltuuskunta, among others, ask people to join their actions on a video that contains several factual errors. There is an interview of Markus Kiili, municipal council member and the chairman of the village association, on the video. Kiili is actually not the chairman; Eveliina Niva is the chairman of the Äkäslompolo village association. There is a lot of false information on the video, claims and images that are not true.
- The mine of Hannukainen is not going to be an iron ore mine. It will be a multi-metal mine where iron, copper and gold are mined.The percentage of copper alone covers half of the production costs.
- The mining project of Hannukainen will not be a threat to Pallas-Ylläs national park.
- The mine will not be located 5 km from the centre of Äkäslompolo. According to Fonecta route planner, for example, the distance from the mine to the Jounin kauppa shopping centre is 12,41 km by car. The estimated travel time is 13 minutes.
- On the video Kiili says that the residents of the area started to oppose the mine when they found out that the amount of mining is 20 times bigger compared to the old mine. He forgot to mention though that the neighbors of the mine, local and year-round residents support the mining project.
- To make it clear, the size of the mining district is 29 square kilometers and the actual area of operations in Hannukainen and Rautuvaara together is 22 square kilometers. This means that the operational area of the mine is smaller than the area of Äkäslompolo, Yllästunturi and Ylläsjärvi together.
- There was a claim on the video that the southwest wind will bring the mining dust to Äkäslompolo and there will not be white snow after that. This fear is pointless as we have several dust control methods today and this is why the dust hazards near the mining area are next to nothing. You can see this for yourself, if you walk for example near the open-pit mines in Kevitsa, Sotkamo or Jällivaara. Furthermore, the reports of the weather station in the area show that the prevailing wind direction is from south.
- There is a claim on the video that we will dump waste water into the Natura waters. All the wastewater from the mine will be treated properly and most of this water we will use in our operations. The rest will be led through the water treatment to a clarification pond and after that through a disposal pipeline to Muonionjoki river.
- There is also a claim that because of the mine Ylläs would no longer attract nature tourists. We really can not understand this claim as there is enough space for mining and tourism in the same area. Kittilä and Sotkamo are good examples of this.
- For example in Sotkamo the registered amount of year-round overnight stays was double compared to Kolari and there were over six times more summer tourists in Sotkamo than in Kolari. There are three mines in Sotkamo: Sotkamo Silver, Mondo Minerals and Terrafame. According to the latest data Sotkamo is going to decrease the municipal tax rate considerably, which means that the increase in average salary will over 500 euros annually (Taloussanomat 29.10.2019).
In addition to this, the distance between the areas of nature tourism in Sotkamo and the mine is the same with Ylläs and Hannukainen mine.
Mining industry, along with tourism, is essential for northern Finland. There has been a strong growth in the development of mining operations, turnover and workforce. In 2017, for example, the turnover of the mines in Lapland was 539M€ and the direct employment effect 1610. In addition, the mines in Lapland employ indirectly hundreds, or even thousands of people. The mines in Lapland have also generated new companies in Lapland and have brought vitality to their operational areas. (Regional council of Lapland, the economic outlook of Lapland 2018; Statistics Finland)
It is not meaningless.
