Full translation of the interesting bit from this audio file, courtesy of ctrc:
Host: I welcome to the studio the minister for industry and trade Marta Novakova, good evening
Guest: Good Evening
Host: It is interesting how some formulas repeat, the Lithium case appeared few days before last years parliament elections and it’s the same this year. Is this all just a coincidence?
Guest: Well I don’t know, you probably know better if it is a coincidence.
Host: No, but I am asking you.
Guest: Well, maybe the topic was brought up, because the information as made public, that they got the permit to do 13 (exploration) drillings. However the Australian company got their first permit in 2009, and until now, except this information, there were no other official informations about their exploration activities. The first permit runs out next year, and it is also necessary, amongst other things, to get the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) …
Host: … yes we’ve already heard, from the appropriate official departments, that the company is, maybe indirectly, referring to, and they say that they haven’t issued any permit as of now.
Guest: No, they haven’t.
Host: And I suppose that you, as a minister of industry, have looked into this. So where lies the truth, do these permits exist or not?
Guest: Well really, the 13 permits for the exploration drilling have been issued by the Regional Authority of Ústí nad Labem. However, that on its own is not enough to start mining, for that they need many other documents, and one of them is the EIA which, as we know, takes many years and it is not easy to get the EIA, people talk a lot about it here. And that’s still not all, they also need to specify the mining area and also the permit for mining activities, and they have, as far as I know, none of these. So I think it’s a little bit of a storm in a teacup and maybe right before the elections it could be beneficial for somebody.
Host: For whom do you think?
Guest: I don’t know, you see I…
Host: So you said it just like that, nothing specific..
Guest: Yes, nothing specific…
Host: Ok, well then tell me, you have met the Prime Minister because of this yesterday, what were you debating?
Guest: Well the Prime minister wanted to know what is the actual situation, because the media is starting to ask him about the permits for the 13 drillings. So minister Brabec (Czech Minister for the Environment) and I gave him the available information about the state of this project and at the same time we also talk about the continuing interest of the State, to influence (control ) the mining of the so called ‘’super strategical’’ raw materials. New raw material policy was established at the end of last year.
Host: How can it be influenced in this specific case? I am asking, because Prime Minister Babiš said, that ´´minister Nováková has to force Diamo to wake up, and be active´´. That’s an exact quotation. So, what exactly are you supposed to force Diamo to do?
Guest: Well, the Prime Minister didn’t really have the information, that the mining union filed a complaint, because the state selected Diamo to start exploring the Lithium mining and especially it’s following use and processing, because mining is not what everybody desires.
Host: So explain to the listeners how can we differentiate between the competencies between the Australian company, who does have the permits for the exploring part of, but not the mining as you mentioned, and Diamo.
Guest: Yes, I’ll try to be brief, but it’s not so simple. Ok, Australian company EMH has got at the the permits for exploration, and no one else can do these exploration . However, now we are waiting for their results of the exploration, the State would like, as it’s in the change of the raw material policy, influence the mining of the super strategical raw materials, like lithium.
Host: So the state doesn’t want the Australian company to continue?
Guets: No, the state would like to influence it, and so we told Diamo to start working on it.
Host: And do you know what you expect from Diamo exactly?
Guest: Yes, we know what we need from them and they’re working on it. This is the information we gave to the Prime Minister, and now we are waiting for the decision of the Office for the Protection of Competition, if we even can order the Diamo like this. It’s not only a question of lithium, but also other raw materials, so the issue is bit more conceptual, if we can carry on like this.
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