1st Feb 2017 11:13
LONDON (Alliance News) - Beowulf Mining PLC on Wednesday said the County Administrative Board for the County of Norrbotten in Sweden has made a "surprise announcement" by raising possible issues with the miner's application for an exploitation concession.
Beowulf originally submitted its application for the concession for its Kallak iron ore project in Sweden back in April 2013, and has since been faced with numerous delays.
The exploitation concession application had gone through several departments, including the country's mining inspectorate, Swedish government and the County Administrative Board of Norbotten.
However, following a solid three-month period with no developments on the application, Beowulf on Wednesday said the County Administrative Board for Norbotten has referred the application back to the mining inspectorate.
Beowulf said the referral was "with respect to matters regarding the effects of a mining operation at Kallak on Laponia." Laponia, better known as Lapland, is a province in northernmost Sweden.
Beowulf said the County Administrative Board had made a "surprise announcement", and Chief Executive Kurt Budge is in Sweden this week to meet key stakeholders.
"The company will provide a further update to shareholders in due course, after fully understanding the County Administrative Board's announcement, and importantly what it means in practice," said the miner.
Beowulf has had its shares suspended on AIM pending further clarification of the matter. However, trading earlier in the day saw shares plummet by 35% to last trade at 9.42 pence per share before the suspension was introduced.
The ongoing struggle to secure the exploitation concession has been a frustration for the miner in recent years. The County Administrative Board first questioned Beowulf's environmental impact assessment as part of the application as far back as November 2013.
The mining inspectorate was then passed the application, and originally committed to making a final decision in January 2015 - when Budge already stated that it was "disappointed" by the wait.
That was then pushed back to late February, 2015, because of the mining inspectorate suffered from a shortage of staff.
The mining inspectorate then decided, despite being satisfied with Beowulf's application, to refer the final decision to the government of Sweden in February 2015. The inspectorate felt the government should decide because the inspectorate had "not developed an opinion" on some aspects of the environmental code of the application.
By October 2015, the government of Sweden had asked for the mining inspectorate to express its views on the application, with the inspectorate subsequently backing Beowulf's application for the exploitation concession. However, the inspectorate had raised concerns about the local communities and the interactions between mining and reindeer herding in the area.
No developments occurred concerning the application for almost eight months after it had been referred to the Swedish government, and by May 2016, Beowulf's disappointment had turned into "frustration".
The government responded in July 2015, but not to Beowulf's advantage. The government instructed authorities to review the company's application in light of a court judgement that was made concerning a separate project owned by a separate company.
The Supreme Administrative Court ruled in February 2015 that Tasman Metals Ltd's mining lease for its Norra Karr project should be cancelled because of inadequate environmental study work. Beowulf welcomed the ruling, despite causing yet further delays to the process.
In November 2016, the government delayed the application process once again, pushing it back into 2017 after giving the County Administrative Board more time to answer questions from the mining inspectorate as to whether the company's environmental impact assessment contained the necessary information for future mining operations, as per the ruling by the court.
Three months had passed with no development on the application, until Wednesday, when the County Administrative Board referred the application back to the mining inspectorate.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2017 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Beowulf