It may be taken as axiomatic that the northern lands and seas—Alaska, the Canadian north, Greenland, Svalbard, the ‘northern cap’ of Scandinavia, the Soviet north, and the seas adjoining these areas, including the Arctic Ocean which lies between them—will not escape the process of ‘development’, whatever that may be taken to mean. The pressure of population alone, considered globally, is certain to ensure that the resources of these areas, if not, at least initially, their living space, will be explored and exploited. The fact that each of the land areas is, as it happens, the sovereign territory of an industrialized country, will facilitate this process. The option, if it is thought to exist at all, of total preservation of the Arctic and sub-Arctic as some kind of world nature reserve may have attraction to some but must be seen to be wholly unrealistic. Development will occur. But it is sensible, as well as possible, to try to influence the type and course of that development. The objection may be made that such an exercise is pointless, because we cannot see far enough or clearly enough into the future, when new considerations, unguessed at now, may revolutionize our priorities. This ground for objection is of course true; but it is not a reason for giving no thought at all to the question, for all decisions about the future have to be taken on a basis of imperfect knowledge.

This article attempts to locate and briefly describe all the main mining operations that are currently active within the Arctic. In addition, many smaller mining operations, where grouped into recognizable mining districts, are included, as well as some mines which are no longer active. It is beyond the scope of this work to review the potential mineral resources of the Arctic, but where deposits are large, and figure prominently in the literature or have been investigated in detail with a view to future exploitation, they have been included and located on the various maps.

It is now 60 years since the Swedish Lapps held their first national assembly (landsmöte) in Östersund in 1918. One year later the first issue appeared of Samefolkets Egen Tidning [The Lappish People's Own Newspaper], which, under the title Samefolket [The Lappish People], is still published, and thus provides a continuous record of organizational developments among the Swedish Lapps. In this article I shall survey political organization among this particular ethnic group during the period 1918 to 1937. Although Lappish debates now transcend the national frontiers of Fennoscandia, in the early years of ethnic politics there were separate developments in Norway, Sweden and Finland, with rather rare organizational contacts between the Lapps of the different countries. It is to be hoped that the record will later be completed by discussions of events in Norway and Finland; Sweden, however, provides a useful starting point, both because of the continuous publication of an ethnic newspaper, and the sustained interest of the Swedish state authorities, which permitted the publication of the proceedings of national meetings at a time when the other two countries were tardy in encouraging such ethnic awareness.

This expedition to Iceland was concerned with ice depth soundings of the largest ice cap in Europe and involved both the development of impulse radar systems and the use of satellite survey equipment for locating experimental stations and ice depth traverses (Fig 1). Vatnajökull, which translated means ‘water-ice’, is a temperate ice sheet and measures approximately 140 km east to west and 100 km north to south, thereby occupying more space than all other glaciers in Europe combined. Ice depth studies had previously been limited to seismic experiments conducted during the French-Icelandic expedition of 1951 when some 33 individual soundings were recorded. A few gravitational studies have also been made. It was not until 1976, however, that a first glacier base profile was obtained by a joint Cambridge-Icelandic expedition using electronic equipment developed at the University of Cambridge (see Polar Record, Vol 18, No 115, p 375–77). From that expedition some understanding of the electrical properties of ice was deduced and it became possible to design equipment that, theoretically, could measure the deepest parts of the ice cap. It was agreed in Reykjavik, in July 1976, to carry out a joint expedition in 1977 using a Mark II British instrument to survey Vatnajökull, at least in part, time and weather permitting. Owing to unforseen difficulties it was only possible for Cambridge University members to carry out this work.

A Cambridge expedition was in Svalbard during late June, July and August 1977 and undertook geological field work concerning late Precambrian/Palaeozoic stratigraphy. One party of the expedition completed a small scale exploration drilling contract for a German industrial concern. Members of the expedition were: W. B. Harland (leader, geologist); C. A. G. Pickton (geologist/driller with Party D); N. J. R. Wright (Party D, geologist); K. Swett and D. Johnson (Party A, geologists from the University of Iowa); M. J. Hambrey and P. Waddams (Party C, geologists); S. R. Larter and B. Bowler (Party D, drillers/geoscientists from the University of Newcastle); J. Gammage, R. Hanks, D. Burkitt, P. Doughty, and G. Thwaites (Party B, boat captains and crews). The activities of the expedition were divided into two phases.

For more than 30 years the late Professor Harald Drever, of the Department of Geology, University of St Andrews, was intimately concerned with the people of the village of Igdlorssuit, near Umanak in west Greenland. Almost every year he spent some weeks in the summer visiting and working in the area. He always hoped that the villagers could maintain their traditional lifestyle by hunting seals and he made a lasting contribution to the preservation of one of their cultural skills when he initiated a kayak endurance race across 80 km of open sea from Umanak to Igdlorssuit. He provided the prize monies, and he donated a handsome trophy for the winner. With his death in 1975 this race was in doubt. However, in 1976 the Umanak Kommune formed a committee to run the race and started to raise support for future races. The Harald Drever Memorial Fund to help the race funds was begun the same year. A sum of about £1 700 (US$3 300) was raised from over 100 contributors and this sum has been matched by contributions from the Umanak Kommune and the Greenex Mining Company, which operates at Mârmorilik in the Umanak district. Thus a substantial basis for the financial future of the race has been laid.

A group of 10 geologists—6 Danish, 3 English and 1 Canadian—organised themselves last summer into an expedition to carry on their extensive field work on the Tertiary geology of the Kangerdlugssuak-Blosseville Kyst area of east Greenland. The English group was led this year by Dr N. J. Soper of Sheffield University, but overall leadership was under Dr C. K. Brooks of Kobennavns Universitet; the status of being an official Danish expedition as opposed to an independent English party made things much more straightforward. The expedition was notably successful in obtaining large quantities of data and samples from new areas of considerable importance to the studies of Tertiary stratigraphy and palaeomagnetism. 1977 was a uniquely ice-free year on the Blosseville Kyst and, apart from swell problems with small boat landings, sea access was easy. The ice break up and dispersal in, for example, Angmagssalik, was probably the earliest in living memory.