Member Info for scotalba

Over the last couple of weeks have been trying to get a better idea of how long we will have to wait for the Dewatering Permit decision. I have been in direct contact with the NRW water quality permitting team who are dealing with Alba application. I was being told that "The Water Quality Permitting team is currently experiencing a high demand for our services. Unfortunately, this will increase the time before water quality applications can be assessed for completeness, and if adequate, duly-made ready for technical determination and consultation, as necessary. The current estimate is a delay of approximately 14 weeks"
this to me was a general statement that did not answer my specific questions about Alba's application.
I have now received another e mail from them, the two main questions I wanted answers to were.
1.Alba have mentioned that NRW may fast track their application due to the circumstances of their application, is that the case.
2. Will that 14 week time frame really mean a decision will not be forthcoming until after the full 14 weeks, or can Alba expect a decision sooner.

They have told me that they can not fast track any applications, and that the 14 week delay on applications dose stand and it may take up to 14 weeks before they can even assess this application and then make it duly made, and then once it is duly made it could take a further 4 months to complete.
I do know that they can not tell me everything and I am just going to leave it now, and the application decision will come when it comes. I guess I am not expecting the RNS to drop anytime soon, but lets hope it comes faster than the time frames they are giving me. I would like to think it will.
If you want me to post the e mail they sent me in its entirety let me know and I will do that.




Alba have mentioned that NRW may fast track their application due to the circumstances of their application, is that the case.
Will that 14 week time frame really mean a decision will not forthcoming until after the full 14 weeks. Can Alba expect a decision sooner.

Great RNS. Vivien Johnston Glass appointment is a very shrewd move by Alba.

@Lodes
will second that, thanks to all the good, genuine, honest posters on this message board, some great information on here. I do know of Iwan, that would be MR H at species team, I have not had direct contact with him..

@Lodes
Did you get anything interesting, I don't know of Iwan
No I don't use them.
Nothing more to do, just got to keep being patient now. I happy that the Alba team, know what they are doing. I believe Mark Austin is a very intelligent, very honest and trustworthy man, for him to be so deeply involved in Alba is for me a huge reason to believe that Alba will come good soon.

I have been doing some enquirys this morning and Just got some information right now from NRW, I was trying to get an idea on how long it would take to get the Species License, and confirm it indeed had been applied for.
"NRW can confirm to date we have received three applications, one in relation to a species permit, one in relation to a water quality permit and one that relates to a temporary water abstraction licence"
"The species application is currently being assessed to establish whether it can be duly made. Once our assessment of the water quality application is complete and they are duly made the water quality application information will be published on our public register. Species permit application information is not published on our public register as there is no legal requirement to do so."

I have asked before and asked again today, on the de-watering permit timescale they will only give me the current time for a new application, not a re-submission, and not taking into account any fast tracking, and that time is 14 weeks. I would hope that will not apply to Alba's application.



Details of the abstraction application will be available on the public register once the application is validated."

One other thing that may be of interest, but not particularly helpful.
Even though Alba have always been in further discussions concerning the de watering license application, I was also told by NRW that Alba initial application was closed when it was refused, that is why no more info appeared on public data base under that application number. Also normally, even though this is a re submission it will need a new case number however It seems Alba's case appears to be being treated as "special" and may not follow the normal procedures, so I am not so sure if we will or will not see more info on the public data base under a new case number before the final determination is made.

If this helps at all, I would say the answer is the applications are decided by teams not individuals. My understanding is that, Determining the De-Watering License Application- this is done by the Water Quality team ,
More importantly right now we need the European Protected Species license (as water quality is no an issue) - this is granted by the species licenses team, and is independent of the de-watering team. Once we get the Species license, the De watering License will be a formality.
The permit is issued by the permit receipt, issuing center(just admin). My thinking is that it's the Species license that we are waiting for, once this is issued the Water Quality team 's work will already have be signed off and then the De-Watering License Application will be granted.
Hope that helps somewhat.

Previously Alba had agreed in the original Habitat regulations assessment "Works will not be permitted to take place within the known bat-inhabited areas of the mine between November – March (inclusive), eliminating potential effects to hibernating bats" No reason to think this will have changed. However, de watering may be able to go ahead without effecting the bat -inhabited areas of the mine.

From what I can conclude, I am very confident that this dose not have to go out for public comment again, the " Fast Tracking" that has been mentioned means that the normal time lines for an application will not apply. The fact that the officials from NWS have recently visited the site is a very positive sign that things will progress quickly.

A very welcome positive RNS from Alba this morning. Thanks for all the constructive reply's to my recent posts. I did try and get some idea on how long the decision might take, but no luck on that one. For what its worth, I do fully believe NWR will fast track this process. I will just sit back now and continue to wait for the license to be granted. I now see a very bright light at the end of what has been a very long tunnel.

@elir certainly plenty of correspondence has been entered into since 29 Oct 2021,
I have no idea why this has not appeared on the public data base, this was my main reason for wanting to find out what has been going on.

The information I state as facts comes direct from personnel at NRW . How I got it, just persistence and asking the right questions to the right people.
The other information is just my thoughts after following this whole permit application process from day one, reading every public document and report released by NRW on the subject and of course following all of Alba RNS and VOX podcasts ect.

Just to add, I also had hoped that Alba had submitted the final de watering license application to the licensing team last month, but today I found out this was not the case. Now at least we know the application is in.

Just a follow up to my post earlier.
From what we were told by George on the VOX Q and A video in September 2022 , Alba hoped they would have the revised Habitat Regulations Assessment(HRA) report back from the external company that did the work, and hopped to submit that completed HRA document to NRW in mid September.

I know as a fact (from NRW) the revised HRA document would not be sent to NRW as a draft document, but only as a document in part of the final application for the European Protected Species License( EPS)

As we know all Alba need is the EPS license to get the De water permit. The water quality issues are done and dusted.

I can only assume, and yes it is an assumption that the time from mid September until now has been dealing with the HRA report and EPS License application.
It could be the case that the EPS Licence has been approved, or it has not been approved yet and will be looked at simultaneously with the de watering application.

Just dealing with facts, I have two.
NRW received the application for the de watering permit today.
There are no outstanding European Species licenses being processed at present.

@ Ocelot You're welcome,
Its not been easy getting this information. Lets hope thing move fast now.

I have some news on this water permit. I can let you know that NRW received the application for the dewatering permit today, from this we can assume the species license has been approved. So now lets see how fast NRW process this and come to a decision. Still 100% confident that we will get the permit.

Just topped up at .01325 Crazy Price.
Can not be long now before the permit news drops. My assumption is Alba submitted the final license application to the licensing team last month, so just a matter of waiting.

Nothing new, but a decent clear article about the graphite situation..

https://www.mining.com/web/graphite-deficit-starting-this-year-as-demand-for-ev-battery-anode-ingredient-exceeds-supply/

Just an update to any new investors, what is exactly happening with the dewatering permit application. As far as we know the granting of the permit is now not about water quality or potential pollution of rivers, that side of things has all been given the green light. It is also not about damaging the environment in any other way. Unless something new has come up, everything has come down to Alba needing to prove bats and otters using the mine site will not be adversely affected. The bottom line is, to get the water permit Alba need a European Protected Species Licence. As part of the EPS licence application Alba have to provide a HRS (Habitat Regulations Assessment) proving that Alba will not harm any protected species too much and outline measures they will put in place to cause as least disturbance as possible to the animals. In Natural Resources Wales opinion It was Alba failure to provide an acceptable HRA that led to the initial dewatering application being refused back in October last year. The only sticking point was to do with humidity levels in the mine and Albas failure to provide enough data, due to Albas data tracking monitors failing. The data that was provided was very acceptable, and proved the humidity levels would not be affected in anyway to harm anything, they just needed more. So where are we now?
It was on the 12 May 2022 that Alba got the feedback from NRW on the revised HRA document that was put forward containing the new data NRW had requested. Since that date the ball has been in Alba's court to act on the feedback from that document. Alba could have gone ahead and submitted the document without revision, but they decided to take further action and revise the document again, and NRW are now awaiting the submission of the newly revised final HRA document from Alba as part of the European Protected Species Licence application, that in turn will give us the Water Permit. Since that date in May, it has not been NRW that have been holding anything up. Alba and an external specialist HRA company have just been gathering the new additional data that they believe is needed, and have been revising the document to include that new data. During Albas last Q and A, George F said the revised HRA document was currently be written up by the company employed to produce the HRA report. We do not know if the final HRA report has been finished and submitted to NWR yet as part of the EPS application, or they are still waiting. Will Alba inform us when they submit the final HRA document, or will we just here when the final decision is made, we don’t know. It is important to realize that the person from NRW who looked at the revised HRA document in May and provided feedback will not see the new revised document again before submission and he is independent of the decision makers from NRW who grant the European protected Species Licence/ water permit. The process has been extremely long and frustrating. I firmly believe it will all end wel

I will just add all the locals I talked to were 100% behind Alba, and I got told many tails of people finding gold all around our area.
I myself found a very large pile of broken rocks and ruble, containing alot of broken quartz, just off the public footpath very near our mine. After just a few minutes of searching through this pile with the help of a hand held metal detector, I found my self a small piece of quartz that I am pretty sure contains gold. I do know a bit about gold in quartz, I would have to smash the quartz and pan it to be sure, but I am happy I have a little souvenir from my visit.