Permanent Secretary Hannele Pokka: Opening words

Conference on Best Environmental Practices in the Mining Sector in the Barents Region, 23.-25.4.2013, Rovaniemi

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to warmly welcome you all to the first mining conference dedicated to environmental issues in the Barents Region. I’m happy to see that there are so many here today. Rovaniemi is a very appropriate place for this conference, since we are in the middle of a mining boom here.

A year ago a report on Best Environmental Practices in the Metal Mining Sector was published in Finland. It gives an extensive and comprehensive overview of the mining sector, covering mining activities and their environmental impacts throughout the whole lifecycle of a mine. The mining sector, research institutes and authorities jointly prepared the report.

It was somewhat of a surprise to us that this report was the first of its kind in Europe. We realized immediately that we wanted to discuss the developments in the mining sector, and related environmental issues, and to exchange experiences on good practices in the sector with our partners in the Barents Region.

Why it is important to talk about these issues right now? The answer is simple: the sector is experiencing intensive development in many places, as it also is here in the Barents Region. Global population growth, depletion of natural resources and climate change are megatrends that have sparked a high interest in the riches underground in our region. In particular, there is a huge demand for these resources in Asia’s growth centres. Moreover, if we look at our own consumption, very few of the technical devices we use daily do not contain metals. Metals are needed in our mobile phones, computers, domestic appliances, cars and many other consumer goods.

We here in Finland are proud of our high technological know-how, including environmental technologies, and the ways that we can improve the environmental performance in the mining sector.  On the other hand, because of new complex technology, we can extract ores from deposits and recover minerals where it wasn’t feasible to do so even a few years ago. New complex technology is introduced to utilize them. At the same time, old — already closed mines — are being reopened, because of modern technologies for ore recovery. This development has challenged and will continue to challenge the technological expertise in the mining sector.

In the Barents Region, the mining sector is bringing new employment opportunities and investments in remote areas, which is not an insignificant matter.

What kind of issues then concerning the mining sector are under discussion in Finland? Much basic information on and knowledge of the impacts of the mining sector already exists. One example of this is the report on Best Environmental Practices. This report will be available soon in English and Russian and will be published on the Conference website.

One of the first points of discussion is the challenging work of assessing the environmental impacts of a mine. No mine is so environmentally friendly that it will never leave permanent traces in the environment. Of course, each mine has different emissions and discharges and therefore environmental impacts, depending on the properties of the ore being extracted, among other things. The mining companies also differ in their working methods. It goes without saying that one badly managed operation can spoil the image of the whole sector for a long time.

A second important issue is that local residents, authorities and the mining sector representatives must have a clear understanding of the environmental impacts of a mining project. The company responsible for the project is in a key position as a planner of the process and as a principal consultant. Careful management of the planning process already in the early phase of the environmental impact assessment is essential for flexibility.

Thirdly, we are discussing how to reconcile the different interests, who makes decisions when conflicts arise, and whose interests take precedence. Although most of the existing mines and sites under exploration are found in northern and eastern Finland, seemingly remote areas, they are not so remote that a big mining project has no neighbours or no impact on them. These neighbours can be a tourism entrepreneur, a reindeer herder, or an owner of a holiday home or a wood lot. Our ores lie in an area called the Fennoscandian shield, and it is rich in ore. But the ground above is also rich in valuable nature areas and supports many important livelihoods like tourism and reindeer herding.

A fourth topic of discussion is corporate social responsibility. Once a new mine begins operating in an area, it might be there for decades. This means it joins the local society and becomes a neighbour to the local residents and other companies that are already there. Legislation and regulations allowing the company operations to exist are not enough — the company also needs a social license from the surrounding community to operate for the whole lifecycle of the mine.

We have also recognized that for the multinational corporations, also in the mining sector, a good environmental reputation is extremely important. If the environmental issues are not in order, it is the market which will react first.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The discussion in Finland continues on what are the best environmental practices in the mining sector. Our government is now preparing an action programme for a sustainable mining sector. The prime minister and key ministries, the mining sector, authorities, companies and organizations are involved in this work, which will soon be completed. Additionally, a process for investigating how mines are prepared to handle risks will be started in May. This is known as a stress test for mines. The Government is launching these stress tests in reaction to problems that have arisen in some new mines. The Ministry of the Environment is coordinating these tests and the methods have been developed together with different institutes in the field and the mining sector.

I wish you all a very good Conference and fruitful discussions here in Rovaniemi.