Labour in favour of new Svalbard coal mine

The parliamentary group of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's Labour Party (AP) is in favour of opning a new coal mine in the Lunckefjell mountain on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.

Despite protest both from within the AP, as well as from coalition partner Socialist Left (SV), AP's parliamentary group with overwhelming majority voted to open a new mine.

- I am absolutely positive to maintaining coal mining on Svalbard. The community there has three legs to stand on, namley coal, tourism and research, says AP's Ingrid Heggø, member of the Parliamentary Industrial Committee. - All three are intertwined, and one depends on the others, she says.

The new mine is closely connected to Svea North, which is expected to run out of coal in 2013. 

The mining company Store Norske has threatened to stop the mining of coal in Svalbard already in 2016, unless a new mine is opened in Lunckefjell.

Store Norske is the northernmost mining company in the world. Store Norske was established in 1916 and currently operates two coal mines on Svalbard: Svea Nord, 60 kilometers south of Longyearbyen, and the Gruve 7 mine, in the valley of Adventdalen outside Longyearbyen.

(NRK)

Tuesday, 20 December 2011 07:56