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In the north of Finland, about a hundred kilometers east of the Swedish border, the forest gives way to the largest gold mine in Europe: the Kittilä mine. There are two pits in the landscape, surrounded by roads, machines, a huge water treatment plant and the concentration plant. The Canadian company Agnico Eagle Mines Limited mines ore here and extracts gold from it – only underground since the two mines were closed in 2012. About a 20-minute drive away, a research team stands in the forest collecting spruce needles. The scientists want to find out whether these needles contain gold particles and, if so, how this happens.
