News

December 01, 2008

Lappland Goldminers Finds Its Own Way Round The Funding Drought To Bring New Mines Into Production

By Charles Wyatt

In the midst of all this gloom there are some bright spots to be found. One such is Lappland Goldminers, a company listed in Norway but based in the northernmost provinces of Sweden and Finland, whence Father Christmas travels once a year, and which has succeeded in finding SEK30 million to start up its Ersmarksberger gold mine. Half the money has been borrowed from shareholders and the other half comes in the form of public funding. This public funding has come from local municipalities, as chief executive Karl-Åke Johansson explains, and it has been contributed for two very good reasons. First, because the money will get the mine underway and provide employment for 150 to 200 people and second, because Lappland Goldminers should become profitable next year and this will add to the longer term prosperity of the region.

It would be nice to take Ms Joan Kuyek of Mining Watch Canada, a woman whose life is devoted to stopping mining projects around the world in the name of environmentalism, to meet the pragmatic Lapps who came to this decision. Fortunately for them she is unlikely to travel, as in the past she has preferred to stay at home in Ottawa when interfering with a copper project in Ecuador, which had likewise been welcomed by local tribespeople.

Lappland Goldminers acquired the Ersmarksberget assets,...