FINLAND Trends and Developments Contributed by: Tarja Pirinen, Fiiu Linninen, Malin Holm and Jaakko Klemettilä, HPP Attorneys Ltd
Sustainability and Circular Economy as Drivers for the Mining Industry The green transition has become a central theme in Finland’s legislative and political landscape, reflecting broader European and global trends towards sustainability and climate neutrality. The current Finnish government’s legislative programme outlines a comprehensive plan to transform the Finnish economy into a sustain - able, circular and low-carbon model. The out - lined legislative initiatives include streamlining and facilitating of permitting processes and increased financial support for projects advanc - ing the green transition, such as direct state aid and tax credits – all aimed at accelerating the shift towards a more sustainable economy and meeting both national and international environ - mental targets. This development also impacts the mining industry. The green transition such as in electric transport, the use of renewable energy and the storage of electrical energy results in an increased need for minerals required for the relevant implementing technology, such as battery minerals. Finland has good potential for battery minerals such as cobalt, nickel, lithium and graphite as well as for rear earth metals, which appears as interest in and as activity in exploration for such miner - als. Finland is also the only producer of cobalt in the EU and is also a major producer of copper, which is essential in the energy transition. Finland has expertise in the whole production chain of battery minerals, from the mining indus - try to the further processing of battery raw mate - rials and production of battery chemicals as well as the technology related to manufacture, use and charging of batteries, and recycling.
EU Critical Raw Materials Act to Implement Priority and Binding Timelines for Permitting of Strategic Projects The EU Critical Raw Materials Act (2024/1252/ EU, the CRMA) is intended to support sustain - able sourcing of raw materials aiming to ensure the supply of critical raw materials to European industry and to significantly reduce the EU’s dependence on individual non-EU raw material suppliers. One of the aims of the regulation is also to promote the recycling of raw materials, for example by encouraging the recovery of criti - cal raw materials from waste sites in the extrac - tive industries. The EU’s list of critical materials was announced in connection with the CRMA in the Spring of 2023. Critical raw materials refer to raw materials that are important to the national economy and are subject to a significant risk of intake. Strate - gic raw materials are the raw materials on the list of critical raw materials, which are also essential raw materials for the EU’s defence, aerospace or space industries, the green energy transition, or the digital transition. Strategic raw materials are also very difficult to replace with other raw materials, it is difficult to grow their production globally, and their predicted global need is grow - ing very strongly. The mineral potential in Finland includes many minerals, such as cobalt, copper, lithium, bat - tery-quality nickel, and graphite, which are on the EU’s list of critical materials and, except for lithium, also on the list of strategic minerals. Further, there are several mines in Finland that produce such critical or strategic raw materials. New mining and exploration projects are also targeted at mineral deposits containing these raw materials. Mining production and mining projects focus especially on nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum group metals, lithium and phos -
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