A Russian And a Trumpist Are Taking Control of The Arctic Mining Industry

I can hardly believe what I am reading in the news. 

I was present in Rovaniemi when a sweaty and highly agitated Pompeo set up his own podium outside the official programme. Like Trump, he had no regard for global and international cooperation. It is all about America.

God sent Trump 

Make America First. Make America Great. Later, he did not entirely rule out the possibility that God had sent Trump to Earth. 

Now Mike Pompeo is back in the Arctic. 

For at almost the same time as the American people, through the ballot box, swept the Republicans out of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and governorships, we are throwing our Arctic mining gates wide open to one of the Trump movement’s biggest hawks.

And while the Russians were packing up after the so-called peace negotiations with the U.S. over Ukraine, former Norilsk Nickel board member Artem Volynets emerged as the new owner of these very mines. 

In purely financial terms, this rather unique industrial and geopolitical construct comes about through the company ACG Metals Limited acquiring the Canadian firm Blue Moon’s mines in Nussir, Hammerfest, and Sulitjelma in Northern Norway.

Chair and founder 

Russian-born Artem Volynets, who now holds British citizenship, is ACG’s chair and founder. 

Mike Pompeo is a board member. 

The Norwegian government—which employs strategic and geopolitical arguments to justify the opening of new mines, most notably the Nussir copper mine in the municipality of Hammerfest—sees no critical issues with this. Minister of Trade and Industry Cecilie Myrseth (Labour Party) has searched high and low, yet has failed to uncover any sound security-policy arguments against the sale.

Also see

Mining Company Nussir Resumes Tunnel Work in Northern Norway

In an interview with VG, the founder of Nussir, Øystein Rushfeldt, describes the concerns raised regarding the former Russian national’s entry into the Norwegian mining industry as a "witch hunt"—adding, sarcastically:

“Do you think he has weapons sitting in his closet at home that he’s planning to bring out to start a little guerrilla war?”

The vice tightens 

No, Øystein, I don’t think so. But I also don’t believe this is the solution for a country, or for a Europe, that finds itself squeezed between Russia and the United States. Especially when it comes to the control of strategically vital minerals.

Viewed from the outside, it looks more like the vice is tightening.

For nearly 20 years, you have fought to bring about the mine at Nussir. The struggle for the Sulis mine has also been going on for quite some time now.

In addition to the strategic importance of maintaining national control over these types of raw materials—control that we have now lost—a defense of Norwegian ownership is often accompanied by a lengthy discourse on our own ethical excellence.

That, too—ethics—is now something we can pretty much forget about.

Mike Pompeo was boundlessly loyal to Donald Trump. Since concluding his tenure as Secretary of State—and following his failed assault on the Arctic alliance—his career has been one long, sustained attack on international cooperation and openness.

Fighting everything

The book he wrote bore the telling title "Never Give An Inch" and was published in 2023. It was "America First" all the way. Page after page, Pompeo described how the United States would use force to combat anything and anyone that did not accept America’s nationalist world order.

He also played a central role in the Hudson Institute, an insular and intensely nationalist think tank. Through undisclosed donations, the think tank championed the defense and pharmaceutical industries, while opposing any attempts at climate regulation.

Arne O. Holm:

The World is Rearming For War – It is Felt Deep in The Mountains of Northern Norway

To mention but a few.

According to the Norwegian government, therefore, allowing this group into the mountains of Northern Norway—and down into mine shafts that are critical to technological development and weapons production—poses no security policy risk.

Noted.

A blessing

According to Øystein Rushfeldt, the solution is an unmitigated blessing for all parties.

That is where we part ways, Øystein. After nearly 20 years.

I fully understand that it is a blessing for former and current owners.

This just wasn’t quite how I had envisioned the new Norwegian mining adventures.