Tertiary Minerals PLC Government Decision - Storuman Project, Sweden (6202L)
September 07 2023 - 1:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMTYM
RNS Number : 6202L
Tertiary Minerals PLC
07 September 2023
7 September 2023
Tertiary Minerals plc ("Tertiary" or "the Company")
GOVERNMENT DECISION
STORUMAN FLUORSPAR PROJECT, SWEDEN
Further to the Company's announcement yesterday, 6 September
2023, the Company is pleased to provide the following additional
information:
Key points:
-- Mining Inspectorate's 2019 decision not to grant the
exploitation concession application is annulled.
-- Mining Inspectorate is instructed to re-examine its decision
with specific guidance on its assessment.
-- Storuman Fluorspar Project contains combined Indicated and
Inferred Mineral Resources of 27.7 million tonnes grading 10.2%
fluorspar.
-- Fluorspar is considered a critical mineral by the EU and an
important battery mineral used in the manufacture of LiPF6, the
main salt used in lithium-ion battery electrolytes.
Commenting today, Executive Chairman Patrick Cheetham said:
"This is a welcome decision, albeit over 4 years in the making,
and it clearly provides an opportunity for the project to move
forward again. The Storuman Project once underpinned a much higher
market capitalisation for the Company and whilst there is no
immediate intention to allocate significant resources from other
projects, the re-emergence of the Storuman Project as a potential
value catalyst is timely as fluorine, sourced from fluorspar, is a
component in the most common electrolyte used in lithium-ion
batteries today and the use of fluorine-ion batteries is under
active development."
For more information please contact:
Tertiary Minerals plc:
Patrick Cheetham, Executive
Chairman +44 (0) 1625 838 679
------------------------------
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP
Nominated Adviser and Broker
Richard Morrison +44 (0) 203 470 0470
------------------------------
Harry Davies-Ball
------------------------------
Peterhouse Capital Limited
Joint Broker
Lucy Williams + 44 (0) 207 469 0930
-------------------------------
Duncan Vasey
------------------------------
Market Abuse Regulation
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under
the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of
UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act
2018 ('MAR'). Upon the publication of this announcement via
Regulatory Information Service ('RIS'), this inside information is
now considered to be in the public domain.
Background Information
The Company's 100% owned Storuman Fluorspar Project is located
in north central Sweden and is linked by the E12 highway to the
port city of Mo-i-Rana in Norway and by road and rail to the port
of Umeå on the Gulf of Bothnia.
The Company has been working on the Storuman Project since 2008
and has completed extensive drilling, metallurgical testwork and
resource estimation, as well as a positive economic scoping study.
Further details are given on the Storuman Project page on the
Company's website.
JORC Compliant Mineral Resource
Classification Million Tonnes (Mt) Fluorspar (CaF(2)
%)
Indicated 25.0 10.28
-------------------- ------------------
Inferred 2.7 9.57
-------------------- ------------------
Total 27.7 10.21
-------------------- ------------------
The Storuman Fluorspar Deposit is designated a deposit of
National Interest under Swedish legislation meaning it is to be
protected from competing land uses.
Mine Permit Application
The Company submitted a Mine Permit application for the Storuman
deposit in July 2014 to the Swedish Mining Inspectorate and
following an extensive consultation process a 25-year Exploitation
(Mine) Permit was granted on 18 February 2016.
However, as a consequence of the Supreme Court's decision to
overturn the grant of a third-party mining company's Mine Permit in
the south of Sweden (Norra Karr Mine Permit - rare earth element
project, owned by Leading Edge Minerals) the Government returned
the Storuman Mine Permit case, along with many other cases, back to
the Swedish Mining Inspectorate for re-assessment in December 2016.
The re-assessment required the Mining Inspectorate to consider the
impact of mining in the mine permit application area on the wider
surrounding area.
Early in 2017 the Swedish Mining Inspectorate requested
additional information from the Company relating to the original
Environmental Impact Assessment ("EIA") and the wider area and this
information was provided to the Swedish Mining Inspectorate, in the
form of an updated EIA, in May of that year.
Subsequently, comprehensive supplementary reports by the
Company's consultants and a legal statement were prepared and
submitted to the Swedish Mining Inspectorate in April 2018 in
response to opposing submissions from the Sami Village (reindeer
herders) and the County Administration Board ("CAB"). Reindeer
herding is a land use that is also considered to be of National
Interest and is thus potentially a conflicting National Interest
with the development of the Storuman fluorspar deposit. Where there
are competing National Interests, a balanced consideration is
required in reaching a decision on land use priorities. In January
2019 the Swedish Mining Inspectorate rejected the Company's revised
application on the basis that, whilst the area of the proposed mine
workings could coexist with reindeer husbandry, the Storuman
Deposit National Interest did not extend to the area of the
tailings dam and associated infrastructure which was considered by
the Sami Village and the CAB to be important to reindeer herding
and husbandry. It was therefore the view of the Mining Inspectorate
at that time that, in the absence of a competing National Interest
in the proposed tailings area, the National Interest of reindeer
herding should take priority and the mining concession application
was refused.
This decision was appealed by the Company and referred to the
Government for a decision.
Government Decision
The Government's decision is that the Swedish Mining
Inspectorate was wrong to consider the tailings area separately and
that the National Interest of the Storuman deposit should extend to
include the deposit and the processing infrastructure as a whole
and not just the immediate area of the mineralisation, as otherwise
the deposit could never be developed.
The Government has annulled the Mining Inspectorate's decision
not to grant the mining concession application and has instructed
the Mining Inspectorate to make a decision based on a balanced
consideration of the competing National Interests being the project
development as a whole and reindeer husbandry.
This decision is in line with the Company's legal submissions to
the Government which also contend that a balance of consideration
of competing National interests should favour the development of
the Storuman deposit.
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