Energy Transition Minerals Ltd. provided an update on the developments with the Kvanefjeld rare earth project (‘the project’) in Greenland. Exploration licence renewal and arbitration status: The Company has now received the official exploration licence renewal documentation for MEL 2010-02, which covers Kvanefjeld. The licence has been renewed for a 3 year period up to 31 December 2025.
When providing the licence renewal, Greenland’s Mineral Licence and Safety Authority, confirmed Greenland Parliament Act No. 20 of 1 December 2021 (‘Act No. 20′) does not apply to the renewal of the exploration license 2010-02.
The Arbitration Panel has set 19 July 2023 as the date by which the Company’s detailed Statement of Claim for arbitration must be submitted. The Company’s preparation of the Statement of Claim is well advanced and will include detailed legal arguments, witness statements and other evidence supporting the claims as well as independent expert reports. The independent expert reports are being prepared specifically for the purpose of forming part of the Company’s Statement of Claim.
A series of case management conferences have been held to negotiate the Procedural Orders for the conduct of the arbitration. Procedural Orders are part of the process of establishing the protocols that will govern how the proceedings will be managed. These protocols must be in place prior to lodgement of the Company’s statement of claim.
Exploration licence draft decision The Company on 22 July 2022 received a draft decision on the Company’s application for an exploitation licence for the Kvanefjeld Project (‘draft decision’). In the draft decision, the Greenland Ministry of Mineral Resources and Justice (the ‘Ministry’) proposed to reject the Company’s exploitation licence application. According to the draft decision, the Company’s exploitation licence application cannot be granted because it would involve exploitation of an ore body that contains more than 100 ppm of uranium, which is the threshold that was introduced in Act No.
20. On 19 August 2022, the Company lodged a preliminary response to the Ministry. In its preliminary response, the Company objected to the draft decision on both factual and legal grounds.
The Company also requested access to the file containing all relevant material upon which the draft decision is based, in addition to guidance on certain aspects of the draft decision. Access to some of, but not all, the relevant material was provided to the Company by the Ministry between 28 December 2022, and 17 February 2023. On 17 February 2023, the Company formally responded to the Greenland Government’s draft decision to deny its Exploitation License application for the Kvanefjeld project (‘the Response’).
The Response was supported by a detailed Statement of Facts and set out several objections to the arguments that the Government put forward in support of its draft decision. The Response was submitted under protest because the Company had not been given sufficient time to review the documents provided.
