business
Mining Race in The Norwegian Arctic: Companies Merge to Survive
35 years after closure, several players were ready to resume mining operations in Sulitjelma in Fauske municipality in Northern Norway. Then everything came to a halt. Now two companies want to merge in the hope of realising new operations.
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There has been a high level of activity recently surrounding plans to resume mining operations in Sulitjelma in Fauske Municipality in Northern Norway.
Both Nye Sulitjelma Gruver (New Sulitjemlma Mines, NSG), owned by Canada’s Blue Moon Minerals, and VMS Exploration have been working in parallel on their own projects in the area.
But in practice there is only room for one mineral processing plant in the area, something that quickly created challenges for the realisation of both plans.
Two parallel projects
In November 2025, NSG began exploratory drilling in the Rupsi mine tunnel to investigate ore deposits. The contractor Fauskebygg AS was awarded the contract to upgrade the 400-metre-long mine entrance, which will later be extended by a further 1,000 metres.
At the beginning of April this year, the company also took over the historic mining facility from Fauske Municipality. At the same time, it became clear that VMS Exploration had been granted extraction rights by the Directorate of Mining.
Shortly after the takeover, Avisa Nordland reported that NSG had paused work in the mine with immediate effect.
According to Øystein Rushfeldt, managing director of Blue Moon Minerals, it gradually surfaced that the two processes involving Nye Sulitjelma Gruver and VMS Exploration could not be developed simultaneously.
"The projects were stepping on each other’s toes. Either both had to stop for lack of clarification, or we had to merge into one company. The latter became the solution", he tells High North News.
Merging
In the middle of April, it became known that Blue Moon Minerals and the Luxembourg-based investment fund Alpha Future Funds (AFF) had entered into a letter of intent to bring together the subsidiaries Nye Sulitjelma Gruver AS and VMS Explorations AS in a joint venture.
The process is expected to continue until some way into the summer. Rushfeldt emphasises that the negotiations go on without ongoing work in the mine.
"When the process is over, we hope to be able to present positive news. The chance of succeeding with development and exploration increases when the companies collaborate, with more resources and capital. That is why it is worth pausing the work."
He believes the merger gives the project an entirely different basis in reality.
"If we do not succeed and both projects continue separately, we fear that the chances of development will be greatly weakened. There is no doubt what the right priority is: to see whether we can pool our resources."
Concerns
The plans for new mining operations have also sparked reactions among local residents. On social media, several have expressed concern about a possible waste deposit in lake Langvatnet, which still bears the marks of previous mining activity.
Rushfeldt says the engagement is natural consequence.
"It is how it should be. We hope that those who have those concerns contact us, so we can sit down together and clarify their concerns, and what is actually the case."
He emphasises that extensive mapping of the condition of Langvatnet must be carried out before any potential tailings deposit can be considered.
At the same time, he is clear that mining requires a place to put the waste.
"It is not possible to operate a copper mine without a deposit site. If society is to be electrified, we need far more copper than we do today. Without increased copper production, it is not realistic to carry out the transition to renewable energy", says Rushfeldt.
