20 April 2021
Beowulf Mining plc ("Beowulf" or the "Company") Beowulf publishes letter to Minister BaylanBeowulf (AIM: BEM; Spotlight: BEO) announces today that the Company has sent a letter from its Chairman, Sven Otto Littorin, to Sweden's Minister of Enterprise and Innovation, Ibrahim Baylan, concerning the status of Beowulf's Kallak application.
The letter is reproduced in full below.
Jokkmokk - 2021.04.19
Minister Ibrahim Baylan, Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation
Dear Minister,Since your arrival as Minister over two years ago, Beowulf has written to you on several occasions and yet the status of the Kallak application has remained unchanged.
In your letter to the Company dated 30 September 2019, you stated that a decision by the Government was 'forthcoming'. Since then and despite the pandemic, the Climate Emergency, the Green Transition and the electrification of society have become critical.
Investments in downstream manufacturing, such as Northvolt, HYBRIT and H2 Green Steel are dependent on secure and sustainable raw material supply.
When it comes to fossil-free steelmaking, you need upstream availability of high-quality iron, such as Kallak's market-leading 71.5 per cent iron magnetite concentrate. All of the aforementioned projects are either in construction or development.
While these projects get permitted in a couple of years, new mines don't get permitted in Sweden.
Not one new mine in over a decade.
Jokkmokks Kommun is one of the poorest municipalities in Sweden. It has been forced to cut its budget by SEK 28 million over the last two years; public services and infrastructure which it can no longer afford to provide for the benefit of the community. Länsstyrelesen Norrbotten ignored the financial health of Jokkmokks Kommun in its assessment of Kallak in 2017.
It was at fault for not considering this factor. Ramböll Consultants, commissioned by the Municipality in 2015, concluded that a mine would slow down the decline of Jokkmokk, bring investment and jobs.In May 2018, when the Company met with the State Secretary to the Ministry in Stockholm, he finished the meeting stating that the Government understood the importance of Kallak to Jokkmokk.
Yet the Government does nothing to help Jokkmokk or let Jokkmokk help itself. Kallak would bring SEK billions in investment. It would create 250 direct jobs and 300 indirect jobs in the town and be in operation for 25-years or more, generating SEK 1 billion in tax revenues.
The Kallak story is not about a mine, it's about the regeneration of Jokkmokk, giving the town a strong economic future that lives beyond mining, which also includes reindeer herding, tourism, forestry and entrepreneurs.
That is the goal to which Beowulf is committed; responsible development of a sustainable mine in partnership with the community, a mine that provides metals for the transition to a Green Economy to tackle the Climate Emergency.We now wait for comments back from UNESCO, but there is no transparency in the review process or timeline for its input.
Beowulf has written to UNESCO three times in the last two months to get clarity on the timeline but has received no response.
I understand your Ministry has not followed up with UNESCO, since referring the Kallak case to it nearly six months ago. The Constitutional Committee made a critical statement of the Government's handling of the Kallak application in late November 2020. Yet, Beowulf sees no change and is still being 'left in the dark'.
In March 2020, at the Nordic Mining Day in Toronto you welcomed investors and Beowulf to do business in Sweden, yet the Fraser Institute's Annual Mining Survey now ranks Sweden 36th on Investment Attractiveness.
You have announced reviews and investigations regarding the Environmental Code and Minerals Act.
These reviews should not be used as an excuse for delaying a decision on our application, which has fully met the requirements of existing legislation, with the threat thereafter of another election campaign to 'kick the can further down the road'.
Beowulf's simple request is when will the Government take a decision on the Kallak application?
Yours sincerely,Sven Otto Littorin
Chairman, Beowulf Mining plc
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