In December 2012 the report “Undersökningstillstånd och arbetsplaner” (SOU 2012:73), which was circulated for comments to relevant parties of industry and commerce, authorities and associations, was completed. The changes in the Minerals Act that were suggested concerning the regulation in the exploration stage were relatively extensive and at Foyen we were hesitant to many of the changes proposed. The process of going from exploration to permits and concession is already time consuming and some of the changes proposed would lead to even more extensive decision processes.
On January 30, 2014, the Government decided to circulate a report for comments to the Council of Legislation in which changes in the Minerals Act were proposed, and compared to the previous report of 2012, much has been changed. The major difference is that the Council of Legislation report is limited to concern matters that are subject to chapters 1 and 3 of the Minerals Act, meaning it concerns general provisions and how exploratory work is to be conducted. Remaining proposals will according to the report continue to be processed within the Swedish Government Offices and the future will show what comes out of this.
Positive is that some of the changes proposed in the Council of Legislation report do not put forward requirements that are as definitive as the requirements presented in the report of 2012. For example, the proposal by which a working plan is to contain a time plan showing in detail when the work is to be initiated and completed has been replaced by a more flexible regulation, according to which current use of land shall be taken into account. Specifying time is often complicated since a number of different factors affect the work process. By taking the use of land into account, a working plan that is well-adjusted can be developed in consultation with parties concerned.
A regulation advocated by the previous report was that land owners and holders of special rights would be able to request translation of the working plan into Finnish, Meänkieli or Sami. This right is defined more clearly in the Council of Legislation report meaning that such a demand must be put forward at an early stage. This eliminates some of the concerns of the earlier proposal, but the question still remains whether such an action is motivated considering that the working plan is usually written in Swedish. To avoid putting such a demand to a wrong use, a translation should be motivated by the land owner’s or the holder of special right’s individual language situation.
Would you like to know more about the Mining Law and its different challenges?
Please contact Foyen at tel: +46 (0)8-506 184 00 or by e-mail!
