Withdrawal case closed

In September it was made known that the Land and Environment Court had rejected a request for leave to appeal in the case concerning our current environmental permit. The rejection was appealed, but it is now clear that the Supreme Court will not try the matter and the case is therefore closed.

It all began in 2018 when the Environmental Protection Agency applied for withdrawal of Kaunis Iron’s current environmental permit, considering that operations were not being run in compliance with the permit and that it should be withdrawn. However, the Land and Environment Court found the permit to be valid, so Kaunis Iron could continue its operations on the current operational and production scale.

The Environmental Protection Agency then chose not to appeal the judgment.

However, it was appealed by the River Savers Organisation (Älvräddarna), and a further four interested parties, demanding that the Land and Environment Court of Appeal should try the matter of a withdrawal of the environmental permit. This was rejected by the Land and Environment Court of Appeal.

The rejection was appealed to the highest instance, the Supreme Court. Now it has been made clear that the Supreme Court will not try the appeal against the rejection by the Land and Environment Court, which means that the case is closed.

“Now the case concerning our old environmental permit is fully terminated, which feels very pleasing. We can put this behind us and focus on our new permit and preparations to utilise it,” says Åsa Allan.

On 1 December it was announced that Kaunis Iron had been granted a new environmental permit, enabling continued operations for many years to come