Cementa, the Swedish subsidiary of HeidelbergCement, has been granted a new permit to continue quarrying limestone at the Slite site on the island of Gotland that supplies 75% of the country's cement.
Cementa says the move heads off the immediate prospect of an acute cement shortage in Sweden. The government granted the new permit – valid until December 31 2022 – on November 18. The limestone quarries at Slite supply Cementa’s integrated cement plant on Gotland.
The latest move follows an ongoing legal wrangle over the future of the Slite site. InJuly, Sweden’s Land and the Environmental Court of Appeal rejected Cementa’s permission-renewal to continue and expand its limestone quarry activities at the Slite site due to concerns about its environmental impact.
“It is positive that the government has considered the application and given Cementa a temporary permit. That it was about a year’s permit instead of the three years we applied for will, however, be challenging,” said Karin Comstedt Webb, head of sustainability and public relations at Cementa and HeidelbergCement northern Europe.
She added that limestone mining at the site restarted immediately after the decision. The decision can however be appealed and an evironmental organisation has now challenged the government’s decision at Sweden’s Supreme Administrative Court.
Comstedt Webb said that, if the Supreme Administrative Court were to decide on “an inhibition during the process”, quarrying activities will be stopped until the case has been decided.
Magnus Ohlsson, CEO and MD at Cementa, commented: “Despite the temporary permission from the government, the situation for cement production is associated with significant uncertainties, and a shortage situation may still arise depending on what happens in the future.”
Cementa says the process for a shorter permit of 3–4 years has begun, and the consultation period when comments are obtained prior to the preparation of the application closed on 5 December 2021.
Comstedt Webb said: “We want to clarify that our entire business is, as always, run and will be run within the framework of current environmental legislation, both nationally and at EU level. It is a basic prerequisite for both our short-term and our long-term condition.”
