Abstract
AbstractThis paper concerns affective relations and unexpected interruptions as the planned expansion of an extractive open-pit mining site gathers momentum. The site is a mountain in Varanger, North Norway, criss-crossed by a sand-coloured meshwork of roads that are part of the current infrastructure of a quartzite quarry. Recently purchased by Chinese investors, the mining company Elkem plans a massive expansion of the operations, which will interrupt a wide range of practices and projects, including the migratory movement of reindeer, as well as their grazing patterns. Known asGiemašamongst Sámi speakers, the mountain is also alluded to as a site of other powers, manifesting as unexpected accidents. In this article, I explore how the planned expansion evokes this contested site as more than a singular mountain, and how divergent epistemic formations interrupt the making of extractive resources in multiple ways.
Highlights
Open-pit mining is a frequent source of controversy in the Arctic and beyond
The site is a mountain in Varanger, North Norway, criss-crossed by a sand-coloured meshwork of roads that are part of the current infrastructure of a quartzite quarry
Purchased by Chinese investors, the mining company Elkem plans a massive expansion of the operations, which will interrupt a wide range of practices and projects, including the migratory movement of reindeer, as well as their grazing patterns
Summary
Late evening sun is in my eyes as I am driving North. I pass Stjernevann (Nástejávri), a lake on the mountain plateau between Juovlavuotna and Båtsfjord, where the head of the reindeer siida in this region has his summer camp. Frode details how the planned expansion of the quarry will create difficulties for the whole operation of sorting, grazing, and migration This is what concerns him, and there is no doubt that he must try to prevent this, if he can. Preventing the expansion is difficult in relation to kin, some who struggle to make a living locally in a village with few jobs available These are people who are keen to hold on to whatever jobs there are, people who have lost touch more or less, he says, with reindeer herding as a subsistence practice. He worries that kin will be taking sides against one another, which is another way in which the quarry interrupts. For a significant part of the local population on mixed Sámi descent, the Sámi language was lost
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