Response to interpellation 2024/25:21 on secure and sustainable access to minerals and metals
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD considers that increased access to minerals and metals is necessary for the green societal construction, competitiveness, and defense 1. KD argues that the government is streamlining permit processes through regulatory simplifications, amendments to the Mining Act, and strengthening of SGU 1. KD argues that Sweden needs more mines to reduce import dependence on critical raw materials 2. KD argues that they have improved the situation by changing the uranium mining ban and that they are doing a better job than the red-green government 2. S considers that the current ping-pong procedure between authorities and the government is not good 3. S argues that projects get stuck and that more guidance is needed in regulatory letters 3.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! Isak From has asked me if I am considering any new initiatives to clarify the responsibilities of responsible authorities regarding the permit processes for the mining and minerals industry and if I intend to otherwise take necessary measures to simplify and shorten the permit processes for the mining and minerals industry.
Increased access to minerals and metals is necessary to enable the green societal construction, strengthen competitiveness, electrify Sweden, and strengthen Swedish defense capability. Sweden is today Europe's leading mining nation, and we shall continue to be so. We need more mines to reduce Sweden's and the EU's dependence on raw materials from third countries, and the government is therefore working purposefully to streamline the permit processes while we shall continue to have high environmental requirements.
The government has, for example, decided on changes to the Environmental Assessment Ordinance and the Off-road Driving Ordinance, which involve regulatory simplifications for prospectors. The government has also amended the Minerals Act, which means that a Natura 2000 permit shall no longer be a prerequisite for an application for a processing concession to be granted. In the middle of December, the inquiry into shortened and simplified permit processes according to the Environmental Code will also report on its assignment. I look forward to taking part in this inquiry, which is to take a holistic approach to the Swedish environmental assessment according to the Environmental Code.
In the budget bill for 2025, the government proposes a number of initiatives intended to improve the conditions for authorities to accelerate, simplify, and work more efficiently with permit and supervision processes, which will also promote the mining and minerals industry. These include, among others, initiatives for Bergsstaten, Sveriges Domstolar, the county administrative boards, and Naturvårdsverket.
Madam Speaker! The Government is also working to ensure a successful implementation of the EU regulation on critical raw materials, which aims to ensure the EU's access to a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials. Therefore, the Government proposes an additional allocation of funds for the introduction of contact points for permit processes that shall contribute to simplified and coordinated permit processes within, for example, the extraction of critical raw materials.
The single most important measure for the renewal of the mining and mineral industry is actually the discovery of new deposits. The Government has therefore, starting in 2024, given SGU, the responsible authority, a permanent reinforcement in the work of mapping ore-potential areas. This assignment is the largest investment in several decades to map ore-potential areas in Sweden. It shows that the work to strengthen and develop the Swedish mineral industry is a priority for the Government - not just in words but also in action.
In conclusion, I want to advocate for the newly established green acceleration office. The office is led by two industry coordinators who are to increase the pace of Sweden's decision-making processes to facilitate corporate investments that make Sweden greener and wealthier, and this also includes establishments within the mining cluster. The work shall promote coordination between public and private actors. The industry coordinators have the task of bringing all relevant parties to the same table – for example, authorities, municipalities, and companies needed in a decision-making process – to move projects forward quickly together.
The Acceleration Office will also prepare decision bases for the government to address potential obstacles that are identified. The green transition and the green Acceleration Office are a central part of the work for a greener and wealthier Sweden.
Isak From (S)
Madam Speaker! It is not bad that we get to discuss these important issues of the future. I also thank you for the answer, and I will return to it.
Madam Speaker and listeners! I have submitted the interpellation based on the fact that it has appeared that the government is somehow in the clear, because there is a desire to write off the announcements that the Riksdag has put forward regarding that the government must come to the Riksdag and report how it intends to proceed with shortening the permit processes and reducing the conflicts.
But now it is truly the case that more applications end up on the government's desk. It becomes a ping-pong procedure that no one benefits from. No one thinks a process is good where agencies and the government send cases back and forth between each other. According to LTU, Luleå University of Technology, there is a growing resistance against the mining industry. LTU has mapped out 16 ongoing conflicts, which unfortunately in no way will be resolved with the answer that Ebba Busch has provided on this interpellation.
Madam Speaker! Right now, large and important projects involving the availability of Sweden's and Europe's strategic rare earth metals are getting stuck. Then the question is whether it is the investment climate that is to lead us forward. Is it this that will make more companies dare to invest? Is it this that will make Sweden and Europe less dependent on China?
We can observe that a mining deposit most often creates concern in the locality where the mine is to be located. This applies regardless of whether one is in Ortviken in Jämtland, where the company wants to mine vanadium, or if it is a question of graphite in Vittangi or fluorite in Storuman. There are more examples. In every place where one wants to mine a metal, a mineral, or a particularly rare earth metal, conflicts arise. These are conflicts that will be appealed somewhere, and then they end up on the government's desk. But will the government continue to send cases back to Bergsstaten? What is needed is more guidance, and I hope that the government is clear in the wording of the regulatory letters and in the conversations with Bergsstaten. Bergsstaten has itself identified that the municipalities need higher competence to handle the cases, and that is something the government and the responsible minister need to ensure.
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I want to start by thanking Isak From for raising the issue. It is close to my heart, and I know it is also close to the hearts of Isak From and many others in the chamber. We need to pick up the pace and cooperate as well as possible. This is truly a Sweden Inc. issue. Mining policy is in many ways truly geopolitics, and I perceive that it is what Isak From was getting at in his speech.
Last weekend, we at Sveriges Radio learned that China has stopped the export of specifically graphite to Sweden. Graphite is an important component in electric car batteries and is a raw material that China dominates. The assessment is that they control 85-90 percent of the value chain for battery-graphite anodes.
Talga is a company that wants to mine graphite. According to the company itself, the ambition is to extract 16.2 percent of the demand for natural graphite in the EU by 2030. The company also plans to produce just over 10 percent of the EU's demand for anode material during the same period. This could increase all of Europe's independence in a difficult security policy situation. We agree that it would be positive if the mining of graphite can take place as soon as possible in Sweden.
But if Member From wishes to ensure the possibility of extracting these important minerals expeditiously, it would have been helpful with a little support from Member From in conversations with party comrades in Kiruna. According to information, the company, together with Kiruna municipality, began preparing a detailed plan for the mining operations as early as the beginning of 2021, with the schedule that it would be completed in the first quarter of 2022. At the beginning of 2024, that is this year, it became apparent to the government that no detailed plan had been established, and the company submitted a so-called planning proposal to the government. The S-led municipality then gave a clear notice and said no to the detailed plan.
At the same time, information has emerged in the media that the municipality would be more positively inclined towards the mine if the company could give something back to the municipality, for example by building housing or paying for municipal activities. I will not specifically comment on that information, but it would be unfortunate if one ends up in a situation where municipalities in Sweden use the municipal planning monopoly to put pressure on individual companies to engage in activities other than extraction. I do not, of course, hold a Member of Parliament in the Swedish Parliament responsible for this, but it is an example of something we need to cooperate on across party lines as well as between the state, the national, and the regional levels. I also want to be clear that I do not, of course, rule out measures that could mean that the local level is more likely to say yes. So, we are currently working, for example, with land-based wind power.
The government has, in the budget bills for 2023 and 2024, permanently increased the general government grants, and we are working in other ways to support the municipalities. I really want to emphasize here that the mining cluster, according to some estimates, accounts for 20 percent of the regional GDP and 5 percent of the jobs in Västerbotten and Norrbotten. This is what we must protect, and it could be more. But then we must help each other from right to left, nationally and regionally, to unlock this.
I agree with the analysis regarding the need for a rapid increase in the self-sufficiency of graphite. It would be good for both Sweden and Europe.
Isak From (S)
Mr. Speaker! Let me be clear; we have had a dialogue with party comrades, and we consider it completely unacceptable that the company is being extorted. On the other hand, we stand fully behind Kiruna municipality when issues regarding more housing and more interventions are raised. It is something that both the Riksdag and the government need to take very seriously. Today, many homes and access to buildable land are lacking.
The clear message regarding the requirements I have given to the party comrades in Kiruna must also apply at the national level. It cannot be used in a blackmail situation against the company. Therefore, I fully support that the company has assigned the matter to the government and requested that the government make a decision on a planning process, which the government can do. I am fully aware that it is another minister in the government who does it. But I consider it to be a collective decision-making in the government, so this should be able to be restored.
This also shows that there is a lack of knowledge. Just as Bergsstaten highlights, there are many municipalities that now feel considerable anxiety regarding what this will entail: "What will it actually mean if we are to break? What will it mean for our water?" Here we undoubtedly need knowledge-enhancing initiatives.
I also stand behind the Critical Raw Materials Act. That we stand behind it and are involved there now is important, but it will also mean that in order to obtain the required permits, one must involve all levels. Then the local level must also feel that it is included, otherwise you will end up in that situation – that unfortunate situation, as I say – which has now arisen, where the government and the State Board of Mining send cases back and forth between them and the fluorite project at Kyrkberget is once again on the government's table to handle.
This is unfortunate for the investment willingness in Sweden, I want to point out. More measures are needed here than those that the government mentions. Certain very important changes have been made. Part of the Natura 2000 change that the government has made is based on the investigation that was commissioned by the S-led government. It was very important, and it is also very many who welcome the change and see that it will be an improvement.
Unfortunately, this coincides. I have now had two debates with the Minister's colleague Romina Pourmokhtari regarding limestone mining. There, it turns out that we have a major limestone shortage that is now affecting our companies. Not least the mining and mineral companies and the steel industry in northern Sweden have been hit by both more expensive limestone and longer transports. At the same time, we have a government that rejects permits. This becomes utterly contradictory.
It may be that just that find was in the wrong place, because it is the core area of the industry or something else. But my question to Romina Pourmokhtari was then: Is it all the limestone we have intended to mine on Gotland? We have seen in recent years that it will not be possible either. It is required that we get more opportunities, just as the Minister is touching upon. We need to find more deposits. But we also need to have a better dialogue.
I hope that the acceleration office, which I believe is very good, can do an important contributing job to create an understanding that we actually need these minerals here and now.
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I would like to continue where the member from From left off.
I actually believe there is a risk that the EU's dependence on Russian gas, that is, the effect of being so dependent on Russia and Russian gas as we were, will be perceived as a breeze in comparison to our dependence on China and other third countries when it comes to minerals and metals for the green transition.
Lithium is a key component in batteries, and in that regard, the EU is 100 percent dependent on imports.
Another example is cobalt, where the Democratic Republic of the Congo today accounts for 59 percent of world production. Demand for cobalt for the manufacture of batteries for electric cars is projected to increase by nearly 2,400 percent by 2030.
We in Sweden and the EU need to learn from the dependency we have had on Russian gas but not apply that lesson solely to the energy sector. The lessons need to be applied to other areas as well.
Therefore, we need more mines. On this, we are in complete agreement. The question that has been asked today is what we do to pave the way for that.
The green acceleration office was mentioned. We have a broad investigation on permit processes that is to be completed in December this year. Since July 1 this year, it has been easier to open mines in Natura 2000 areas. Since last year, it has been easier to prospect through adjustments in, among other things, the off-road driving ordinance. We have made the largest investment in SGU in several decades - 70 million for better knowledge of our ore potential, upgrading the Malå office and introducing Mineraljakten, to mention just a few of many things.
I actually think the figures speak for themselves. The applications for new exploration permits in Sweden have doubled since S has been in government. An exploration permit is the first step on the way toward a new mine, and during the last two years S held the power of government, only 109 and 104 new applications for exploration permits came in. Last year, that figure was 242. That is higher than in more than 15 years. It is not so strange, because it is a fact that the mining industry has had it worse previously and is getting it better now.
Previously, the mining of uranium was prohibited, a prohibition that has hindered new mining projects. We have changed that now.
The investigation that S commissioned to simplify permit processes was circumscribed by many limitations. The investigator was not allowed to look at material requirements in the Environmental Code even if they were to prove to be inefficient. The investigator could also not analyze which issues concern special conditions for a certain type of industries that are socially important. The investigator was not allowed to submit proposals that in theory could mean that environmental protection in some part would be worsened, regardless of whether any potential weakenings could be compensated for in another way. Therefore, the question of over-implementation of EU law could also not be analyzed further. Finally, the organization and handling of the Land and Environment Courts were also not allowed to be included in the investigator's review, and this is perhaps the core of the entire environmental licensing system.
I mean, therefore, that there is reason to say that we are doing what has been requested by the Riksdag and that we are doing it much better than the red-green government. I think the figures back this up.
Isak From (S)
Mr. Speaker! Yes, we need to do this now. It is now that the Critical Raw Materials Act has started to apply.
But we have many times highlighted the housing shortage prevailing in Kiruna and Gällivare and all the national interests that make it practically impossible to secure buildable land.
Gällivare and Kiruna as well as Skellefteå, Norsjö, Malå, Lycksele and some other municipalities are mining municipalities, well accustomed to handling conflicting interests. Many also have a connection – they have worked in the mine or know someone who has worked in the mine. The conflicting interests are not as large.
But if one is to open a new mine in a completely new location, there will be new opposing interests. Then there will be a fear that the water will be ruined - or the farmland, to mention the opposing interests and conflicts that exist in the southern parts of our country.
We must also be aware of this – these minerals are found throughout the country, not just in northern Sweden, and in that case, the government also needs to have a strategy to meet that. In that case, one needs to create a greater understanding that we need to mine this.
The local community also needs to feel that no one is coming and running over them without them also getting something in return. If one does not feel that they are getting it, one ends up in the situation that Kiruna finds itself in. For a long time, people have shouted: "We need more housing! We do not want a 'fly in, fly out' culture! We need to have infrastructure!" But one has not received it. Eventually, one might make an incorrect decision.
Now I will not take up any more of the Minister's time here, because the Minister actually needs to go to the department and make decisions.
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I will begin by summarizing. I perceive that there is, fundamentally, a great consensus here.
I am also pleased to be able to lead the department that has the coordination responsibility for what we call strategy north, which aims to point out that if one wants to achieve heavy corporate investments moving forward, one cannot only think that it is about the permit for specifically that mine or that company and the opportunity that comes with a company's expansion or new establishment in the area. One also needs to think infrastructure.
That is why we are now making a historically large prioritization of infrastructure. We are adding an additional 200 billion, in addition to what is already at the base for infrastructure.
That is why we have now also prioritized securing more funds to reduce the risk when it comes to building housing even in more sparsely populated areas, where housing is needed for business investments to be realized and, in the long run, to secure welfare, because the entire society must function.
We agree on the need for minerals and metals. I have met some of my representatives on this matter. I am pleased with the initiative that S took regarding the legislation on Natura 2000.
I hope that our two parties can pave the way for more mines in Sweden regardless of whether we are in government or in opposition, because we as national politicians have a responsibility to ensure the interests of the whole of Sweden while simultaneously ensuring that the green transition benefits the entire country and especially those municipalities where the society-critical industry is located. We cannot afford to delay processes in this geopolitical situation. We need to feel confidence in the future. We need to unleash the power in the Swedish mining industry.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.