Annual meeting 2023

Incumbent Sven-Olof Kviman was elected chairman of the meeting and incumbent Berit Nordlund as secretary. Tommy Wahlund and Eric Thorslund were elected adjusters. The voting length was set at 19 people.

With the meeting board in place, it was time to report on the association’s report and financial management. The activity report for the year 2022 was read out and added to the documents. Eric Thorslund reviewed the financial report and results and the balance sheet were determined. The auditor’s report was read out and auditor Carl-Oskar Klint moved for the board to be discharged from liability, which the annual meeting subsequently approved.

The board presented a proposal for an operational plan which involves continuing to support research, starting education of school youth, developing the website, improving accessibility to the mine shaft, actively looking for sponsors, increasing the number of members, pushing for the oil cleanup, cooperating with local associations. Tommy Wahlund clarified that the website will be expanded with member login, a booking system for viewings and talks, and that a number of interesting articles and interviews will be published to increase interest in the mine. The business plan was approved. There were no submitted motions for the annual meeting.

Then it was time for elections to the board.

All documents from the Annual Meeting are available to members. In accordance with the nomination committee’s proposal, the annual meeting elected Sven-Olof Kviman to the position of chairman for re-election for one year. Cecilia Odenfelt Obitz was elected as the new treasurer after the resignation of Eric Thorslund in a new election in one year. The following board members were elected: Magnus Ericsson (re-election, two years), Mikael Hermansson (re-election, two years), Eric Thorslund (re-election, two years), Tommy Wahlund (re-election, one year). Berit Nordlund and Pontus Holmström have one year left in their terms of office. Lena Gumaelius (re-election) and Christoffer Storkaas (new election) were elected board deputies for a period of one year. Carl-Oskar Klint was elected auditor (re-election, one year). Torsten Holm was elected to the nomination committee (re-election, one year).

We thank the selection committee for their work during the year!

Regarding the membership fees for 2023, the annual meeting chose to go with the board’s proposal and set it at an unchanged SEK 250.

Under the item Other matters, the chairman began by clarifying when asked that the Ytterby Gruva Foundation and the Ytterby Gruva Association are completely separate organizations, but have a close collaboration. A question came regarding a reminder about the membership fee, and Lena Gumalius, who is in charge of the membership register, said that a request to pay will be sent out, and possibly also a reminder.

Finally, the chairman introduced a firebrand, the chemical engineer Pontus Holmström, and thanked him with a bouquet of flowers for his efforts. It was Pontus who, around the year 2000, initiated the work aimed at making the mine visible, which became the starting point for the activities that are now carried out by the association and the Ytterby Gruva Foundation. It was also Pontus who arranged for the Japanese Nobel Prize winner in chemistry in 2010, Professor Ei-ishi Negishi, to come and visit the mine.

After the presentation, the annual meeting decided to appoint Pontus Holmström as an honorary member of the Ytterby Gruva Association.

The annual meeting documents will shortly be available to logged in members under the Meeting minutes section. Login details will be sent out next week to all members.

Working day

During the day, a solid crowd of happy association members worked to clean away slag from the mining area before spring. After this, sausage grilling, coffee and cake were offered outside Fogdebostaden under brilliant sunshine and a good atmosphere.

MycoMine

In Resarö Bygdegård, association members during the day also got to listen to an interesting talk by Marcus Ivarsson, researcher at the National Museum of Natural History and CEO of MycoMine. Marcus told us about their new purification plant that is installed in Ytterby mine. The purpose is to clean the groundwater in the mine from the remains of oil. MycoMine uses microscopic fungi to break down the oils and the end product is biomass – a completely natural product that is composted. The pilot project will last 6+6 months and will then be evaluated together with the Fortifications Agency, and hopefully the system will be maintained until the mine is cleaned up.

We will return to MycoMine in future articles on the website.