Mining 2025

FINLAND Trends and Developments Contributed by: Tarja Pirinen, Fiiu Linninen, Malin Holm and Jaakko Klemettilä, HPP Attorneys Ltd

serves as a basis for sustainability disclosures. In addition to the traditional financial material - ity concept, an issue may also be material and should therefore be included in the reporting based on materiality of impacts, thereby requir - ing in-scope companies to assess the impacts caused by their operations. Furthermore, EU regulations will introduce cor - porate due diligence obligations that will also reflect on the mining sector. The Corporate Sus - tainability Due Diligence Directive (2024/1760/ EU) has entered into force and is now being implemented into national legislation. The obli - gations will be applied to the first in-scope companies in 2026. The directive establishes a corporate due diligence duty on large compa - nies and thereby requires them to identify and address potential and actual adverse human rights and environmental impacts not only in the company’s own operations, but also in its busi - ness partners’ operations in its chain of activi - ties. As companies in the mining sector, if not in scope themselves, may be relevant upstream business partners, the due diligence duty may – eg, increase the need for information on impacts of their operations. The new Batteries Regulation (2023/1542/EU), which entered into force in 2023 and started to apply in part in 2024, includes obligations as regards battery due diligence policies and risk management that will apply from 18 August 2025 to economic operators that place bat - teries on the market or put them into service. Such obligations specifically include informa - tion on upstream actors in the supply chain and raw materials. The Batteries Regulation also includes obligations regarding – eg, battery car - bon footprint declarations, battery performance, durability and labelling, battery removability and replaceability, substance restrictions, recycled

content requirements, and extended producer responsibility. State Aid Schemes for Large Investments in Clean Transition To improve Finland’s competitiveness and attract green investments, the Finnish government is planning to introduce financial measures to sup - port clean transition projects and investments. Preparatory legislative work is currently going on for the purpose of introducing two parallel state aid schemes for significant investments in the clean transition which are both based on the European Commission Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework for State Aid (2023/C 101/03) Crisis and Transition Framework. Both the Direct Aid and the Tax Credit can be obtained for investments in strategic sectors for the tran - sition to a climate-neutral economy. Such invest - ments are considered to include the production of equipment and components essential for the transition to a climate-neutral economy, as well as the production or recovery of related critical raw materials necessary for the production of the equipment and components. Critical raw materi - als refer to the raw materials listed in Annex 4 of Commission Regulation (EU) 2014/651 declar - ing certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market, such as lithium, cobalt and nickel. According to the draft decree, Direct Aid could be awarded if the eligible costs of the investment project in Finland are at least EUR30 million. The Tax Credit would be granted only for new pro - jects and the minimum size of an eligible invest - ment would be EUR50 million (each investment considered individually). The application of both state aids must be submitted no later than 31 December 2025, and prior to commencement of works on the investment project. The purchase of land and preparatory works, such as obtaining

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