The Norwegian government has granted permission for the construction and operation of the Nussir copper mine in Hammerfest, a municipality on the northwestern coast of the island of Kvaløya, in Norway. The company plans to pipe between 1 million and 2 million metric tons of mining waste, or tailings, annually to the bottom of Repparfjord, a nationally protected salmon fjord in the Norwegian Arctic that Indigenous Sámi fishers depend on for their livelihoods. The Nussir mining project is owned by Canadian company Blue Moon Metals. The Norwegian Environmental Agency issued Nussir ASA, the project’s previous owner, its environmental license after it confirmed the company’s plan to securely place the tailings at the bottom of the sea. However, this has faced strong opposition from some Sámi Indigenous people and environmental activists, who say they fear the mine and marine waste deposit will destroy vital marine habitats for species such as Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and disrupt traditional breeding and migration areas for reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). Blue Moon Metals plans to dispose of its Nussir copper mine tailings at the bottom of the Repparfjord, a national salmon fjord in Finnmark in Norway. Photo by: Lone Bjørkmann “The biggest social impact is the feeling that no place is safe, that local culture and the environment can only survive until someone finds a commercially viable project,” Frode Elias Lindal, a Green Party local representative for the Alta municipality council and Finnmark county council, who is part Sámi and part Norwegian, told Mongabay via email.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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