Despite the opposition of the local government, the Environmental Board extended the excavation permit for the mine in Estonia until 2049. The annual rate of oil shale mined increased from 8.2 million tons to 10 million tons.
Although oil shale will continue to grow for about 15 years at the mine in Estonia, Eesti Energia's subsidiary Enefit Kaevandused decided last year to apply for a grubbing-up permit for 30 years, "Actual Camera" said.
- We do not know how long we will continue to work in such volume, maybe the mining volume will be smaller. So this is a small margin given and asked. We will probably not use this permit for so long and so long, ”said Veljo Aleksandrov, Director of Development Projects at Eesti Energia.
The municipality of Alutaguse proposed to extend the excavation permit for the largest oil shale mine in the world until August this year for ten years.
“I hope we can now point out these errors because communication as such is consistent and happening all the time. Just past practice has shown that in the case of extradition, our voice is heard more attentively, ”commented Paul Kesküla, Vice-Chairman of the Municipal Council of Alutaguse.
According to the Environmental Board, the length of the issue of the excavation was based on the wishes of the company, taking into account most of the proposals coming from the municipality.
- The municipality of Alutaguse submitted six proposals to us during the processing of the mining permit, which we took into consideration. These five were related to vibration, noise and water, and we made them an additional condition. But this one, really, which was ten years as they wanted, we decided with a discretionary decision that 30 are justified, ”explained Martin Nurme, Head of the Environmental Bureau of the Environment Agency.
Eesti Energia intends to use the territory of the Estonian mine after closing the mine for electricity production. For this purpose, it is planned to build a solar power plant and a pump hydroelectric plant there.
