Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen stands on the mountain Luossavaara and looks out over Kiruna. He points to the right where his family lived in the 1950s and where the old migration route of the Sami village lay along Lake Luossajärvi.
Since the route was blocked by mining and settlement, they have taken the passage behind the mountain.
There is also the Per Geijer deposit, the ore body with high levels of rare earth metals.
A new mine would completely cut off the passage between the Sami village's summer and winter grazing areas.
There is nowhere left for us to move. It would mean that we would have to stop reindeer herding and that the Sami culture here would cease, says Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen.
Has the right to the land
The indigenous people's right and several conventions that Sweden has signed give the Sami villages the right to practice reindeer herding on their traditional lands.
In the pursuit of rare earth metals, the EU Commission has appointed the Per Geijer deposit as a "strategic project". This means that the project will be given priority in various permit processes and that they will have a maximum of 27 months.
I think it's pretty clear that this mine will be tested on an incomplete basis.
What the Swedish Environmental Court will ultimately say remains to be seen.
Gabna Sami village has asked the European Court of Human Rights to review the case. But after the EU has given the mine a "fast track", one is worried that it may already be too late.
Reindeer herding is largely based on the reindeer's free roaming. More interventions in nature make it difficult for its inner compass. Now, for example, many reindeer have stayed in the winter grazing land and calves have been born there without being marked.
"Do not speak the same language"
The Sami village and LKAB have regularly had talks about the deposit.
We do not quite speak the same language. For us, what the land gives us - what it has given at all times - is much more valuable than a few extra tons of feed in compensation.
LKAB points out that the reindeer industry analysis that has been initiated needs to be completed, but at present, there is no solution to how both parties will be satisfied.
We still have not sat down and had a dialogue about it. The problem we have is that we need the same land. All land around here is protected in one way or another, and ultimately it is the state's responsibility to handle goal conflicts, says LKAB's CEO Jan Moström.
