Local governance of the mining industry—five Finnish examples

Abstract

In this article local governance of mining from the perspective of Finnish municipalities is examined. Local governance refers to the guidance of the local development of mining and its positive and negative effects in the interaction between different actors. At the time of this study, one of the themes of the Finnish mining debate was how the municipality should prepare for the entry of a mining project into its area. In addition, there was talk about whether, why, and how the mining company should be involved in the development of the area. The situation was new, as it was decades since the previous construction of new mines. Article is based on a qualitative case studies on five Finnish municipalities with metal ore mining was operated or planned. These case studies are examined retrospectively be asking what was desired at that time, what responsibilities and duties between municipalities and mining companies were seen, and to whom did they belong? The article evaluates the situation immediately after the Finnish mining boom.The role of the municipality as a political actor in mining development was different in each case. The main question was whether to handle mining development as a political issue or whether to take it as granted as a neutral industrial issue. It was clear that the mining companies were expected to develop a completely new kind of dialogue with the surrounding society and the local governments. Environmental issues and impacts caused the largest discussions in the local level.According to this research, municipalities must multi-task between the land-use planning, local governance of social and environmental issues, and economic development. Municipalities must take and manage risks, just like mining companies. For these municipalities the mining boom raised various controversial issues and economic challenges. Many ideas about solutions have to date progressed to a broader societal debate. Now these issues are on display e.g., in the context of the Mining Act reform discussions. It can be said that the mining boom challenged the actors to develop cooperation, proactive collaborative operating models and to reform the methods of environmental impact assessments. They have also given greater weight to social impact assessment and the issue of developing it as an independent process.