Indigenous Sámi activists and communities are protesting the recent granting of an Australian-based battery anode and graphite company for a planned iron ore project in Sweden's far north.

The action comes after the Talga Group obtained permits to move forward with its Nunasvaara South graphite mine against the wishes of Europe's only fully recognised Indigenous people.

Since February, Sweden's Supreme Court has dismissed a series of appeals from Sámi people and environmental groups following the company's claims of community consultation and studies which it says would ensure a reduction of the impacts on the Sápmi region.

Sámi leaders have criticised the company's consultation process, its studies, as well as labelling the environmental safeguards as insufficient.

According to the Saami Council and its community land analysis, the company plans to share the mining area with reindeer herders for six months of the year, leaving parts of Sámi grazing lands unusable while disturbing Sápmi habitats and rivers with air pollution.

The Saami Council, a voluntary non-governmental entity which is made up of nine Sámi member organisations, is also concerned about the European Union's sheer support of the strategic project. It was apparently rushed through the permitting process after the Talga Group was accused of making minimal communication efforts with communities in accordance with international law.

The council has protested at the EU decision to list Nunasvaara South under its list of strategic projects, which it points out undermines the rights of Sámi people.

The European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, say the project lodged under its critical raw materials act is an initiative to ensure the EU has access to the minerals which are labelled as critical for the green energy, digital, aerospace and weapons sectors, which has drawn criticism from the diametrically-opposed council.

"By fast-tracking these mining projects with an expedited 27-month permitting process, the EU prioritises resource extraction over our fundamental rights to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC)," the Saami Council said.

"This decision risks bypassing essential environmental safeguards and further marginalising our Sámi communities."

The FPIC principle, a non-binding element of UN international law, is not a legal obligation in Sweden. The Nordic nation has also not ratified the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, which establishes a binding treaty.

Aslak Holmberg, a member of the Saami Council, told Mongabay authorities were not listening to the impact on Sámi lives.

"I think it is very concerning that the European Union as an institution has not seen a problem in getting behind these mining activities, which are on unceded Indigenous lands," he said.

"Opposition to these mines has been very clearly articulated by the communities that would be impacted."

Sámi leaders claim several Indigenous communities will have nowhere to live in the winter months and be forced to stop herding reindeer.

The semi-domesticated deer are sacred to Sámi people's livelihoods and cultural preservation of the species is an Indigenous custom which dates back centuries.

A reindeer husbandry analysis prepared in 2019 by the Talma community, a Sámi linguistic group amid several Swedish municipalities, concluded mining and reindeer herding could not coexist in the same area and it could not identify measures which would avoid or remedy the predicted effects on Sámi communities.

The iron ore project joins the approval of a copper mine by the Norwegian government on the EU list last year, located at the bottom of a nationally-protected salmon fjord which Sámi fishers depend on for their food sources and livelihoods

The Swedish government have claimed the identification of "significant deposits" of rare earth were found near the country's northern most city of Kiruna, which is said to be essential for electric vehicles and wind turbines through the manufacturing of Talga's lithium-ion batteries.

Talga received an environmental permit, which allows the company to develop a mining permit to operate in the EU-designated Natura 2000 network of protected areas, despite a previous impact assessment stating the permit isn't required as "no significant impact will arise".

The company insisted it has redesigned the mine area to minimise the negative impact on nature, denying many of the environmental allegations directed from the Saami Council.

"We have engaged with the Sámi villages on an ongoing basis since we first started (plans of) the project in 2011 and we also have dedicated personnel and management systems for this purpose," a company spokesperson said.

"While we are not always in agreement about everything, we have a good dialogue and we are confident that when all is said and done, we will be able to prove ourselves as a good and responsible partner."

The mine is set to utilise 149 hectares of Indigenous land to extract 120 tons of graphite ore per year among the 89,200 hectares set aside on winter grazing lands for Sámi herders.

It will also be located within the catchment area of the Torne River, which is home to the habitat of many endemic and threatened species which includes the black salmon, bullhead freshwater fish, and freshwater pearl mussel.

Graphite mining has been long associated with a range of emissions from sulfur oxide to nitrogen oxide, greenhouse gas emissions and dust pollution.