04. December 2024

ARQIS has successfully achieved the planning approval for Saxony Minerals & Exploration AG (SME) to reopen a mine for the extraction of important raw materials for the energy transition. The Saxon Mining Authority (Sächsisches Oberbergamt) has approved the general operating plan for SME's ‘Erzbergwerk Pöhla’ project with a planning approval dated from 30 September 2024.

Tungsten, tin, zinc, fluorspar, copper, indium, iron, silver and cadmium are to be extracted from the Pöhla-Globenstein deposit in Saxony. The focus is on tin and tungsten, which are considered critical to the German and European economies. These raw materials are essential for batteries, for example, and thus for the transformation of energy and mobility. All in all, the security of raw material supply is increased, while at the same time the German economy's dependence on global supply chains is reduced. The impact on nature has been fully assessed and is minimal, as an existing underground mine from the former GDR era is being used and reopened.

An ARQIS team, headed by Dr. Friedrich Gebert, has been advising the project developer SME for many years. More than twelve years have passed since the planning approval was first submitted. The approval comprises several hundred pages. During the mandate, ARQIS also managed the external engineering firms and environmental auditors in their consultations with the relevant state authorities. Complex permitting and plan approval procedures, including for infrastructure and renewable energy projects, are regularly part of the advice provided by ARQIS’ focus group ‘Regulatory’.

Advisor to Saxony Minerals & Exploration AG

ARQIS (Berlin/Dusseldorf): Lead: Dr. Friedrich Gebert (Partner), Dr. Bernhard Gröhe (Associate), Managing Associate: Luise Schüling, Associates: Hannah Düwel, Finn-Ole Münchow, Clara Schmidt