Swedish Government to allow domestic uranium mining
Plans afoot to remove a ban on mining permits related to uranium-containing material.
Uranium will be a concession mineral under the Minerals Act, with amendments proposed to enter into force from the beginning of next year.
'It must be legal to take care of the Swedish uranium that is already up the hill, it is completely incomprehensible that the mining operators have had to treat it as waste. The Swedish mining and mineral industry is crucial for Sweden, Europe and for the climate,' says Minister for Climate and Environment Romina Pourmokhtari.
It will now be possible to extract uranium in Sweden and a complete investigation of bedrock can be carried out during exploration.
The amendments will also enable applications for exploration permits and a processing concession for uranium.
'The ban on uranium mining was wrong already when it was introduced, and the fact that we are now removing it is positive for Sweden as an industrial and mining nation,' says Mats Green, group leader in the Business Committee for the Moderate Party.
'The ban has made it more difficult for us to mine other critical and strategic minerals that are often found together with uranium. With this decision, we can improve Sweden's and Europe's energy dependence and secure our self-sufficiency in critical minerals,'
The bill also proposes an amendment to the Environmental Code so the government's mandatory admissibility assessment will be limited to such nuclear facilities that are currently examined by the government under the Nuclear Activities Act.
Activities where small amounts of uranium are handled will now be examined under the nuclear legislation by the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, or are completely exempt from the licensing requirement.
