JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Storuman fluorspar project that UK-headquartered Tertiary Minerals is proposing in north-central Sweden will have a “minimal impact” on reindeer husbandry, an in-depth analysis of reindeer herding has shown.

As part of the mine permit reassessment process of the Storuman project, Tertiary commissioned supplementary reports on reindeer herding, reindeer grazing conditions in the area of planned mining operations and a description of vegetation and reindeer conditions in the area of the planned tailings storage facility.

Tertiary also commissioned an in-depth analysis of the impact of mining operations on the Natura 2000 area, which showed that the proposed operations would not have an impact on the area.

Natura 2000 is a network of core breeding and resting sites for rare and threatened species, and some rare natural habitat types which are protected in their own right. It stretches across all 28 European Union countries, both on land and at sea.

“Given that we continue to have support from the majority of key stakeholders, we remain hopeful of a positive resolution to the mine permit re-assessment process in the near future. It is, however, worth noting that the company has no influence on the speed at which the re-assessment of the grant of the mining permit is being processed by the authorities,” MD Richard Clemmey reported on Tuesday.

The Storuman mine permit case was sent back to the Swedish Mining Inspectorate for reassessment in December 2016, after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the grant of Leading Edge Minerals’ Norra Karr mine permit. The reassessment of the Storuman mine permit, and several other permit applications, is intended to consider the impact of mining in the concession area on a wider surrounding area.

The scoping study is proposing an 18-year operation that will produce an average of 103 000 t/y of acid-grade fluorspar. Work on a preliminary feasibility study was placed on hold until the mine permit matter is resolved.