The establishment of a graphite mine is important for the green transition and the best thing for Kiruna, Sweden and Europe, says Minister of Economic Affairs Ebba Busch.
The municipal leadership in Kiruna is of a different opinion:
They treat us like a colony,
says Mats Taaveniku, municipal councilor in Kiruna
The Vittangi Anode project’s graphite reserves are estimated at 36.9 million tonnes (mt), with a graphitic carbon (Cg) grade of 23.1 percent and 8.5 Mt of Cg in contained mineral of June 2023.
In January, 2025 the news came that the Swedish government is running over Kiruna Municipality and forcing the municipality to adopt a detailed plan that enables a graphite mine in Vittangi outside Kiruna, which the municipality had previously said no to.
If we are going to manage the green transition and the digital transition, we need what we have in Swedish soil. This mine could be part of the solution to cutting our dependence on China, said Minister of Economic Affairs Ebba Busch (KD) to SVT.
Graphite is an important mineral, among other things, in the manufacture of batteries. The mining company Talga, which plans to open the mine in Vittangi, emphasizes that it is their ambition to extract 16.2 percent of the EU's demand for natural graphite by 2030.
This is the best thing for Kiruna, Sweden and Europe, said Ebba Busch, who believes that Kiruna Municipality is obstructing.
We already have 1,000 vacant jobs in Kiruna and no vacant housing. We believe that this will only lead to fly-in-fly-out, which only brings costs and no income to the municipality, says Mats Taaveniku.
Mats Taaveniku believes that measures are needed that make it possible to start housing construction and that attract workers to move north, otherwise another mine will burden the municipality.
It has been over two months since the government decided to override Kiruna Municipality on the detailed plan for the graphite mine outside Vittangi in January 2025.
Now the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation has found a detail that it hopes will invalidate the decision.
It concerns whether the graphite deposit in Nunasvaara South should be considered a national interest claim or a national interest legally established by a court.
The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation claims that it is a matter of the former – and then it would not be possible for the government to force Kiruna Municipality to produce a detailed plan for mining operations in the area.
Now the Society for Nature Conservation is requesting legal review at the Supreme Administrative Court.
I believe that we have a lot of potential to achieve success in this issue, says Björn Lundquist, who is active in mining issues in the Society for Nature Conservation in Norrbotten.
However, Tobias Kluge, industry lawyer at the mining industry's interest organization Svemin, sees the content of the appeal as far-fetched. He believes that the national interest in the deposit has been established in the environmental permit that has become legally binding.
In the environmental assessment, the court has concluded that this is a deposit of national interest. It is considered extremely important even in a European context, he says.
Source:
Vittangi Anode Project, Sweden / Mining Technology
Ebba Busch (KD): Gruvan det bästa för Kiruna, Sverige och Europa / SVT (in Swedish)
Regeringens beslut överklagas – detalj kan stoppa grafitgruva i Vittangi / SVT (in Swedish)
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