Swedish Laws and Regulations v.s. The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT)
Swedish Minerals Act (1991:45)
Chapter 1. Introductory provisions. Application of the Act
Chapter 2. Exploration permits
Under Swedish law, exploration permits grant the holder the right to conduct exploration for “concession minerals”.
Chapter 3. Exploration work
Excerpts - How exploration work may be undertaken:
”Section 3 Exploration work may only be undertaken in order to demonstrate that a mineral covered by the permit is present within the area and in order to obtain more detailed information about the size, character and recoverability of the deposit.”
”Section 4 The permit holder may use concession minerals that are extracted during exploration work and are covered by the permit, solely to study their character and suitability for technical processing. He may also utilize the products which he produces or extracts in that connection. The same applies to previously extracted concession minerals covered by the permit, unless otherwise provided by Chapter 13, Section 2, second paragraph.”
Chapter 4. Exploitation concessions
Chapter 5. Exploitation, etc.
Excerpts:
Introductory provisions
”Section 1 A person holding a concession may, within the concession area, at the surface or underground, on the one hand carry out exploration work in accordance with Section 3, and on the other undertake exploitation and activities connected therewith in accordance with Sections 4–7. For exploitation and activities connected therewith that are undertaken at the surface, however, the concessionaire may only make use of land, designated for that purpose.”
How exploration work may be undertaken
”Section 3 Exploration work may be undertaken with regard to such minerals as are covered by the concession. To the extent that no other person holds a permit or concession, the concessionaire may also explore for other concession minerals within the concession area, with the exception of oil, gaseous hydrocarbons and diamonds.”
How exploitation, etc. may be conducted
”Section 4 Exploitation may be undertaken with regard to such minerals as are covered by the concession. Within the concession area, the concessionaire may also extract other concession minerals or other mineral substances, to the extent which is necessary for the work to be carried out in an appropriate manner. Of the material thus extracted, the concessionaire may use what is needed in the exploitation operations.”
”Section 6 The concessionaire may utilize such concession minerals and other mineral substances which cannot be separated prior to concentration or similar processing from the minerals covered by the concession.
”The concessionaire may also utilize other extracted concession minerals and mineral substances than those referred to in the first paragraph if, within six months of notification, the owner of the land does not remove the mineral and reimburse the costs incurred with respect to it.”
https://www.sgu.se/en/mining-inspectorate/legislation/minerals-act-199145/
Uranium is removed as a concession mineral in the Minerals Act
”Starting on August 1st, 2018, in accordance to a change in the Minerals Act (1991: 45), uranium will be removed from the list of concession minerals in Chapter 1. 1 § 1 Minerals Act. This means that uranium will not be included in an applications for exploration permits or exploitation concessions that comes in from that date. Older regulations will still apply to applications granted before August 1st 2018, as stated by the transitional provisions.
The prohibition does not cover mining activities relating to iron ore, base metals, rare earths (REE) or other minerals where the mineral is mined, tested, processed or physically or chemically enriched for others purpose than to use the uranium fissile properties.
The municipal veto right
A change in Chapter 17 Section 6 of the Environmental Code, in which the municipality's total right of veto does not longer apply, after August 1, 2018, in cases where it is from a national point of view particularly important that the business will be established, i.e. permits for mining operations or mining extraction, mining exploration , processing or physical or chemical enrichment of uranium-containing material shall be approved by the Government according to 17 chap. 1 § 1
The Council on Legislation - Prohibition of uranium extraction
Scope of the Prohibition – Excerpts translated from Swedish to English:
The Swedish nuclear regulatory exemption regulations and the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority's regulations make it easy to determine whether or not mining activities involving non-uranium minerals are covered by the prohibition. Operations dealing with low levels of uranium (less than 200 ppm) are always excluded from the prohibition (Section 11 of the Nuclear Engineering Regulation).
Operations dealing with high levels of uranium (over 200 ppm) are exempted from the prohibition, provided that the operation does not involve processing or physical or chemical enrichment for the purpose of extracting the radionuclides or the use of the radioactivity of the material.
A special situation is when, for example, the rare earth metal, e.g. yttrium is bound in the same mineral as uranium. Then it is only at the physical or chemical enrichment that the substances can be separated from each other. In this process, aqueous solutions with more or less pure uranium may occur. Provided that this solution is allowed to form waste, the procedure is also subject to the exception in the regulations. However, if uranium becomes a by-product and uses the uranium's fissile properties, the exception in the regulations does not apply.
My personal comments:
1. The older regulations regarding exploration permit work, granted-before August 1st 2018, still apply to Aura.
2. Mining of uranium levels lower than 200 ppm, as in i.e. Häggån, is excluded from the prohibitation. Even mining of higher uranium content, over 200 ppm, are exempted from the prohibitation, as stated above.
3. It is not now possible to grant to Aura an exploitation concession for uranium acc. to the older regulations, as an application was not applied for by Aura to the Mining Inspectorate, in due time, to be granted before August 1st 2018.
4. An exploration permit holder can only use concession minerals that are extracted during exploration work, section 4, under the Exploration permits, i.e. Aura can´t claim any ownership of other concession minerals since the company has no valid exploitation concession.
DISCLAIMER
Although effort has been made to ensure that the above content is accurate but I cannot take responsibility for any difficulties that may arise in connection to the use of the above.
DYOR!
P.S. I have sold all my shares in the company as I no longer have the necessary confidence in the company´s board and management. I wish you all the best of luck with your investments!
Happy New Year 2020!
(20min delay)