Beowulf Mining PLC on Tuesday celebrated a verdict in its favour at the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court, overruling objections from Jahkagasska Tjiellde’s indigenous Sami community.

Beowulf shares jumped 10% to 43.51 pence each on late Tuesday morning in London.

The Nordic-focused mineral resource developer said Sweden’s Supreme Administrative Court upheld the government award of an exploitation concession for the Kallak iron ore project.

Chief Executive Officer Ed Bowie said: ‘We are delighted that the court has concluded its process and we can continue to advance the project towards the conclusion of the pre-feasibility study and environmental impact assessment.

‘[Kallak] has an important role to play in supporting the decarbonisation of the steel industry and therefore has significance from a global green energy transition perspective.’

In March 2022, Beowulf’s subsidiary Jokkmokk Iron Mines AB was awarded an exploitation concession to target iron ore deposits at Kallak in the north of Sweden.

While the exploitation concession provided exclusive mining rights to Jokkmokk, operating rights would require three additional permits, the company has said.

In June 2022, lawyers for the indigenous Sami community of Jahkagasska Tjiellde announced that they would be asking for legal action against the Swedish government following the decision.

Beowulf had claimed that the ore in the Kallak deposit is necessary for the green transition, as well as offsetting metal supply chain disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a statement, the Swedish government in January this year had described the iron deposit contained at Kallak as ‘Sweden’s largest known undeveloped deposit of so-called quartz-banded iron ore’.

It also said that support for mining of the region was a matter of ‘national interest’, given the fact that Sweden produces around 93% of all iron ore in the EU.

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