By The European Times | Created at 2026-09-07 07:11:33 | Updated at 2026-09-26 23:43:56
2 weeks ago
Europe’s rare-earth ambitions collide with Gabna’s last reindeer migration corridor before Sweden votes
Sweden’s drive to supply Europe with critical minerals is intensifying pressure on the Indigenous Sámi community of Gabna, which says a proposed mining development near Kiruna could sever the last viable route used by its reindeer. The dispute shows why Europe’s green transition will be judged not only by the materials it secures, but also by whose land, livelihoods and rights absorb the cost.
Renewed scrutiny of the Per Geijer deposit comes as Sweden enters the final week before its 13 September general election. Economic security, industrial expansion and the use of northern land have become increasingly prominent political questions as the European Union seeks to reduce its dependence on imported raw materials.
Per Geijer is an iron-ore deposit containing phosphorus and rare-earth elements close to the existing Kiruna mine. It is being explored by LKAB, the mining company wholly owned by the Swedish state.
The project has been designated strategically important under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act. That status reflects the economic value attached to materials used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, electronics and other technologies. It does not, however, amount to final approval for a mine.
A Corridor Reduced to Metres
The dispute is particularly acute because the deposit lies beneath land used by Gabna, a Sámi reindeer-herding community whose territory has already been fragmented by mining, roads, railways and the expansion of Kiruna.
According to reporting by Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT, the community’s remaining migration passage near the proposed development is only about 50 metres wide. The corresponding route was once approximately 13 kilometres across.
Reindeer do not move through the landscape as industrial goods move along a fixed road. Weather, snow conditions, vegetation, disturbance and the animals’ behaviour can all determine whether a passage remains usable. A route that exists on a planning map may therefore cease to function in practice when it becomes too narrow or is surrounded by noise and infrastructure.
Gabna chairman Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen has warned that the development could end reindeer husbandry as the community knows it. The concern is not confined to a single season or herd. Reindeer herding carries knowledge, language, family relationships and cultural practices between generations.
This makes land fragmentation a cultural-rights issue as well as an environmental and economic one. As The European Times previously reported, Sámi reconciliation efforts will have limited credibility if recognition of historical injustice is not reflected in contemporary decisions about land.
Exploration Is Not an Operating Mine
The status of Per Geijer requires careful distinction. LKAB has extended an underground exploration drift towards the deposit and has applied for a mining concession, but the company has also said that it remains far from developing an operational mine.
Further geological work is intended to establish the deposit’s properties, mineral content and whether extraction would be technically and commercially viable. A timetable and exact scope for the wider Kiruna permitting process have not been settled.
LKAB says Per Geijer could support mining activity in Kiruna beyond 2060 and strengthen Europe’s access to phosphorus and rare-earth elements. The company also acknowledges that reindeer herding creates a significant land-use challenge and says coexistence should be an essential objective.
Those commitments will eventually have to be measured against detailed proposals. The decisive questions include the mine’s surface footprint, waste handling, transport connections, operating disturbances and whether alternative designs could preserve a genuinely functional migration route.
Europe’s Strategic Interest
The EU has set 2030 targets intended to expand domestic extraction, processing and recycling of strategic raw materials. It also wants no more than 65% of its annual consumption of any strategic material at a relevant processing stage to come from one non-EU country.
Rare-earth supply is especially concentrated. Europe currently depends overwhelmingly on China for the refining of rare earths used in permanent magnets, leaving manufacturers exposed to trade restrictions and geopolitical disruption.
That dependence creates a legitimate case for greater European capacity. It does not remove the obligation to assess local impacts or turn strategic-project status into an instruction to approve every development.
Domestic extraction cannot be presented as inherently responsible simply because the same environmental or social damage might otherwise occur outside Europe. The EU’s raw-material policy expressly links supply security with human rights, environmental protection and circular use. Applying lower standards at home would undermine that claim.
Consultation Must Carry Influence
Swedish law requires consultation on decisions that may have particular significance for the Sámi people. Consultation is not the same as consent, however, and Gabna does not possess an automatic veto over the proposed development.
The practical value of the process depends on whether dialogue begins while important alternatives remain open. If the route, mining method and infrastructure have effectively been fixed before consultations take place, participation risks becoming procedural rather than influential.
A Council of Europe assessment of minority rights in Sweden specifically identified concerns that Per Geijer could divide Gabna’s traditional herding area into disconnected sections. It urged authorities to apply Sámi consultation requirements before deciding on the exploitation of traditional land and warned that inadequate protection could threaten both culture and language.
The Kiruna dispute is therefore not a simple choice between rejecting mining and accepting dependence on foreign suppliers. It is a question of whether industrial planning can still change when evidence shows that a project threatens the continuity of an Indigenous livelihood.
Swedish authorities and LKAB will need to demonstrate that route alternatives, cumulative land loss and Gabna’s own knowledge are being considered before decisions become irreversible. EU institutions, having elevated the project’s strategic importance, also have a responsibility to ensure that faster permitting does not weaken scrutiny.
Europe needs resilient mineral supplies. It also needs a green transition that communities can recognise as just. At Per Geijer, those two ambitions have reached the same narrow stretch of land.
