Beowulf’s frustration at the delays to its Kallak North Application demonstrate that the political risk to permitting a mining venture can extend to European projects as well as the more widely publicised jurisdictions in more “frontier” areas. The present iron ore price has started to pick up but the market is understandably nervous od iron ore projects and Beowulf recently announced diversification into a graphite project in Finland.
Beowulf Mining reports that it has followed up its letter of 18th November 2015 to the Swedish Minister for Enterprise and Innovation with a new letter “given that it is now over six months since the Mining Inspectorate of Sweden recommended to the Swedish Government that the Concession for Kallak North be awarded and that no response has been received to the Company’s first letter sent on 18 November 2015.”
The Company asserts that its “application satisfies the requirements of the Swedish regulations and that the Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA”) for Kallak North has comprehensively studied all the aspects of a future mining operation, including mining, waste rock handling, processing, tailings management, water management and transport and their associated environmental impacts.”
There have been concerns as to the impact on the Sami reindeer herding communities but the company maintains that it has established extensive studies describing precautionary protective and compensatory arrangements and that these have been established in “consultation with concerned Sami villages.”
The CEO of Beowulf Mining, Kurt Budge, commented “We are aware that the Swedish Government is reviewing several applications and that ours may not be the priority but we have decided to write again to the Government, as it is difficult for a company, such as Beowulf, to have a business critical decision looming and have limited insight into either the decision making process or when a decision can be expected.”
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