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Svappavaara Mine

Country/Territory
Sweden
Type of court
National - higher court
Date
Mar 10, 2011
Source
UNEP, InforMEA
Court name
Miljööverdomstolen
Seat of court
Stockholm
Reference number
M 4866-10
Language
Swedish
Subject
Mineral resources, Legal questions
Abstract

A permit case for the right to mine, crush and sift iron ore from the Svappavaara Mine.

The company, Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag, was in the Environmental Court given a permit to develop a mine and extract and process 2 million tons of iron ore per year in the existing facilities of the company.

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency appealed the decision to the Environmental Court of Appeal and claimed that the application for a permit should be rejected because the application should have included both the new operations and the existing operations so that a joint assessment of the activities could be made.

The Environmental Court of Appeal agreed with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency since the new operations have a clear connection to the existing ones both geographically, technically and environmentally. Thus, the Environmental Court of Appeal found that since the new operations are so integrated into the existing ones, they should be seen as one activity and therefore be assessed together.

Moreover, the Environmental Court of Appeal concluded that the entity applying for a permit has the responsibility for ensuring that it is delimited in an appropriate manner and that the application contains all the relevant environmental information that could result from the activity so that it can be the basis of the assessment and the essential regulation can be given to follow the requirements of the environmental legislation. 

Since the application in this case was not complete, the court could not properly assess whether a permit could be granted. Therefore the appeal was sustained and the application was rejected.

Full text
M 4866-10.pdf