@JSSFHave a look into the history of Cementa, Sweden's largest producer of cement who initially had their environmental permit denied by the Swedish Land and Environment Court due to insufficient groundwater monitoring data.
Lobbying by major industry players who rely on cement and its link to the green transition hastened the Swedish Gov't to support the company get a 4-year permit approved instead of the 20-30 year permit that was originally requested.
https://www.highnorthnews.com/en/swedish-industries-will-still-have-cement-following-court-decisionAs Gvan and others have mentioned, it would be a major embarrassment for the Swedish Gov't if the world's green anode manufacturing company had their environmental approval rejected in the current climate given:
- Sweden holds the Presidency of the EU this year and energy independence and domestic sourcing of critical raw materials are core priorities;
- The Critical Raw Materials Act is due to be announced on March 8;
- The Net Zero Act is due to be announced following the CRM Act, also in March;
- Continuing to be highly dependent on Chinese anodes given their high emission intensity and geopolitical tensions would be reckless and go against all of the rhetoric for Europe to become more self sufficient from Russia and other authoritarian regimes;
- The Norbotten County Administrative Board (CAB) and all of the key environmental regulators have already signaled in their court submissions that the Vittangi mine can go ahead, with appropriate conditions. Kaunis Iron came from a much more challenging situation with greater opposition and still got approved.
Talga's quiet lobbying behind the scenes to position the company alongside the Swedish industrial giants like Volvo, Northvolt, SSAB, H2 Steel etc invited to showcase their green projects to the EU Commission when they visited Kiruna and being pre-approved by the European Investment Bank for up to 300m leaves no doubt in my mind that this project will be approved and we will see the mining conditions in early April.
The Swedish Gov't and European Commission need this project to succeed just as much for their own political careers as we need it to succeed for our own personal investments.
(20min delay)