Arctic Gold AB (ARCT): The municipality of Kautokeino rejects the processing of Arctic Gold's Planprogram.
The Kautokeino Municipal Government was supposed to process Arctic Gold's proposed Planprogram yesterday. However, the Municipal Government surprisingly voted to reject the issue. The Nordreisa Municipality, on the other hand, accepted Arctic Gold's Planprogram on April 24, 2012. According to Arctic Gold the municipality of Kautokeino was supposed to decide on the contents of the proposed Planprogram. Instead the Municipal Government chose to vote regarding mining operations vs. reindeer farming. The Company is of the opinion that a factual error has been committed by the Municipal Government and is now working on receiving a proper review of the matter in accordance with Norwegian law. According to the Norwegian Plan and Building law all private applicants have a right to have their case processed and decided upon, which has not now taken place.
The Municipal Government of Kautokeino rejected Arctic Gold's Planprogram yesterday, following intensive discussions between the ruling parties and the opposition. The votes ended up 8 for and 11 against, after two persons from the ruling parties changed sides to the opposition. The leader of Høyre partiet, Ellen Inga O Haetta, managed to make the issue become a matter of voting between mining operations vs. reindeer farming by the indigenous population, rather than the actual issue which is whether the Planprogram is of sufficient scope to show how the mining operations would affect the environment.
According to the Norwegian Plan and Building law the person wishing to start and activity submits a proposal for a Planprogram to the municipality for processing. The proposal is reviewed and as needed additions are made, after which the municipality arrives at a decision to confirm the program and the applicant then knows what investigations of environmental impact have to be done and a "Regleringsprogram" is carried out. In the Reguleringsprogram all environmental impact is investigated resulting in a Reguleringsplan which is submitted to the municipality and is thereafter reviewed again, and only after this the municipality decides whether the activity will be granted a permit to use the land. In other words, the municipality decides on what land the applicant will be permitted to use.
After the Reguleringsplan has been established the operator applies for permits in accordance with Fororensningsloven (environmental permit) and operating concession in accordance with Mineralloven (the mineral law). Only after this can the operations start.
For further information, please contact the company's CEO and Qualified Person as per SweMin as well as Europe Geologist.
Lars-Åke Claesson
CEO
Arctic Gold AB
46 18 156423
46 70 6733294
claesson@arcticgold.se
www.arcticgold.se
Arctic Gold's business concept is to engage in exploration activities to discover and demonstrate commercially extractable gold and base metal deposits in Scandinavia; The strategy is primarily to carry out exploration work and either sell the project within a few years or to establish mining activities under the company's own control or through a partnership with other companies. Arctic Gold focuses mainly on the Bidjovagge project in northern Norway and current gold and base metal permits in Västerbotten and Norrbotten.