The Ministerial Committee on Economic Policy of the Finnish Government has reorganised the State’s mining industry holdings into a new holdings and development company. This will advance the development of Finland’s battery and mining cluster. The arrangement transfers Finnish Industry Investment Ltd’s (Tesi) investment program for the mining cluster under the responsibility of Terrafame Group Ltd, which will change its name to Finnish Minerals Group Ltd (Suomen Malmijalostus Oy in Finnish).
The change will not affect the operations or ownership of Terrafame. Finnish Minerals Group will continue as Terrafame’s parent company, its shareholding remaining unchanged at approximately 77%.
The change in question is an internal arrangement of the State’s share portfolio, and its implementation does not require new financing from the State budget. Due to the strong development of Tesi’s results-based financing, a total of €46 million of funds previously allocated to Tesi in the government budget that are still unused by the mining investment program are planned to be transferred to Finnish Minerals Group’s use. The financial risks or responsibilities of the State will not be affected by the arrangement.
This development offers very interesting prospects for individual companies as well as for the entire Finnish battery and mining cluster. “The State’s holdings in mining industry companies that produce raw materials needed in electric car batteries can be developed as a strategic entity in the future. To maximise their value, raw materials and components should be further processed and refined in Finland as much as possible. Moving up the value chain would result in new jobs as well as tax and export income,” says Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä.
“It is important to act quickly. If Finland misses the beat on the development in the battery industry, it may become more difficult to get involved later. Finland has an opportunity to be at the forefront of advancing sustainable mining and moving towards climate-friendly transport,” Lintilä continues.
Finnish Minerals Group will be responsible for the strategic ownership and development of its other target companies as well as the mining investment programme from now on. In addition, the company will advance the development of the Finnish battery cluster on a wider scale. The company has already been actively involved in the EU Battery Alliance which, on the initiative of the European Commission, has been preparing a strategic action plan to boost the battery cluster market in Europe. In due time, the strategic entity will channel funds also to ensuring the availability of raw materials for batteries. Finnish Minerals Group will advance this important topic for Finland by actively participating in the Battery Alliance as well as in the preparations for projects and financing packages that will become available to apply for.
“Finnish Minerals Group will actively take part in the long-term strategic development of its target companies. The company can also make new investments in the battery and mining cluster projects in the future within the framework of the mining investment programme,” says Janne Känkänen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Finnish Minerals Group.
“The goal is for Finnish Minerals Group to act as an active owner and developer of the target companies. The active and international R&D operations created during the operation of Terrafame Group Ltd will benefit also Finnish Minerals Group’s new target companies in the future, along with their strategic ownership as a whole,” says CEO of Finnish Minerals Group Matti Hietanen.
“Projects in the EU’s battery and mining cluster can offer target companies opportunities to participate in long-term development work. For smaller target companies, in particular, Finnish Minerals Group can offer also other operative support in, for instance, corporate responsibility, communications, public affairs, environmental permit processes and international visibility,” Hietanen concludes.