State-owned Finnish Minerals Group 30%-owned joint venture company Easpring Finland New Materials can start preparing for an investment decision for its cathode active material plant in Kotka, Finland, after the environmental permit became legally binding, FMG CEO Matti Hietanen told S&P Global Commodity Insights Dec. 9.
The permit was received from the Regional State Administrative Agency in October and the appeal period ended in early December with no appeals against it, making it legally valid Dec. 5, he said.
Beijing Easpring Material Technology Co. owns the other 70% of the JV, with the plant expected to produce 60,000 mt/year of CAM for the European production facilities of Easpring's existing and new customers, starting operations in 2026.
FMG manages the government's mining industry shareholdings and has a stake in a number of other battery-related projects in Finland.
It has a 40% stake in the CNGR Finland JV, which is preparing a precursor cathode active material plant in Hamina.
The JV with CNGR Advanced Material received the environmental permit for the pCAM plant in February 2024, although the permit was currently in administrative court, Hietanen said.
"We will need a legally valid permit before a possible investment decision can be made," he added.
FMG also has a 20% stake in Sibanye-Stillwater's Keliber lithium project, which is due to be the first integrated lithium project in Europe.
Hietanen said the Keliber project was proceeding with the construction of a refinery at an advanced phase, while its second phase, which involved the construction of a concentrator and development of a mining site, was also progressing well.
Keliber is planned to produce up to 15,000 mt/year of battery-grade lithium hydroxide for the European market with production from its own spodumene concentrate to start in 2026.
"We still expect to begin production of refined LiOH from our own ore for the European market in 2026," Hietanen said.
The project had initially planned to start production from third-party ore in 2025, but Hietanen told Commodity Insights that, due to the low lithium price, processing third party ore was no longer economically viable, so the decision had been taken to rather refine own ore from the start.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed both battery grade lithium carbonate at $10,750/mt and hydroxide at $9,900/mt CIF Europe on Dec. 6, down 32% and 38% respectively since the start of 2024.
Nickel industry
Meanwhile, FMG's subsidiary Terrafame reported lower January-September production, deliveries and sales due to a difficult market situation, with Hietanen expecting 2025 to be another difficult year for the nickel industry.
"Nickel and nickel sulfate production faces both supply and demand pressure," he said.
"Because of the growing Indonesian nickel production, the market seems to be oversupplied for a few years. At the same time electric vehicle sales are temporarily growing slower than expected. So, 2025 will probably still be a difficult year for the nickel industry," Hietanen added.
However, he noted that, although Terrafame struggled with the challenging market, it was still well positioned as it had the lowest CO2 footprint in the industry and was almost the only one to offer local nickel products for European customers.
While some companies were lowering or postponing battery production plans due to lower than expected EV sales in Europe and lower forecasts, Hietanen said electrification would surely continue, but "due to a high level of uncertainty many players will consider the timing of their investments very carefully."
He said FMG would probably be new battery-related projects in Finland in the future, "but in the big picture we are currently focusing on the development of our existing assets and execution of our ongoing projects."
Despite other battery metal prices also having a tough 2024, Hietanen said this had not reduced the attractiveness of battery-related projects in Finland, as the country had "many benefits to offer for battery-related projects."
"I would point out three important examples: unique ore reserves suitable for different battery chemistries, good availability of affordable CO2-free energy and a long industrial experience in process technology," he said.
