Greenland Minerals continues consultation process for flagship Kvanefjeld Rare Earth Project
The company has been operating in Greenland, with a focus on the Kvanefjeld Rare Earth Project, since 2007.The Kvanefjeld Project has an initial mine life of 37 years, based on a 108 million tonnes ore reserve. Greenland Minerals Ltd (ASX:GGG, OTC:GDLNF) is continuing the permitting process for its flagship Kvanefjeld Project in Greenland and is now awaiting the second consultation phase, which has been extended to September 13.
Public meetings have been earmarked for late August and will be attended by Ministers in Igaliku, Nanortalik, Narsaq, Narsarsuaq, Qaqortoq and Qassiarsuk in southern Greenland, followed by subsequent casework. This comes after a new Coalition Government formed in Greenland with the Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) and Naleraq parties in February 2021. Although the new Government’s leadership has stated an intention to oppose the development of Kvanefjeld, the government has agreed to a second round of public meetings during August.
Public consultation status On December 17, 2020, the Greenland Government approved the commencement of the statutory public consultation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) for the Kvanefjeld Project, and immediately initiated the consultation period.This kicked off on December 18, 2020, for initially 12 weeks with Greenlandic, Danish and English versions of the EIA and the SIA made available on the Greenland Government’s public hearing portal. It was then extended to June 1, following the election, and then further extended to September 13 to accommodate another round of public meetings.
Public consultation White Paper After the consultation period has been completed, the next step is to respond to issues raised during the process. These responses are then collated in a document referred to as the White Paper. So far, issues raised in the public meetings during February 2021 have been lodged via the Government’s online portal, however, additional questions are expected during the next round of meetings in August. To ensure that the process proceeds as efficiently as possible, Greenland Minerals has started preparing detailed responses to each of these issues for the White Paper with support from key consultants.
Responses are being prepared by reference to material already contained in the impact assessments themselves or in the consultant’s reports prepared to support the assessments. Environmental baseline studiesThrough the Greenland summer, GGG has completed additional environmental baseline studies in the broader project area to further increase its understanding of chemical dispersion by natural processes. The company had intended to conduct an extensive field program this year, which was carefully planned with input from Greenland’s independent scientific advisors with approvals in place for the planned drilling and engineering studies from Greenland’s Mining Licence and Safety Authority. Drilling was also planned to generate data for the next steps in permitting beyond an exploitation licence (operations and closure approvals), as well as geotechnical data for engineering studies. With the change in political sentiment and resulting uncertainty, GGG has postponed the drilling program. Draft legislation concerning uranium. The Greenland Government has put forward draft legislation for consultation to ban the exploration and exploitation of uranium, which would reverse some of the steps implemented by previous governments that aimed to establish a critical minerals industry in Greenland. Critical minerals are those classed as being important to future technologies and in particular ‘green industries’ (renewable energy, electric vehicles) with projected future supply shortfalls.
As the proposed Act is in draft form and in consultation, Greenland Minerals is not able to advise how such legislation could potentially affect the Kvanefjeld development proposal, nor how it would impact other mining projects in Greenland as well as the exploration for a variety of mineral deposit types.
Article By Jessica Cummings
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