Finnish Battery Chemicals receives reasoned conclusion on EIA report

Finnish Battery Chemicals Oy, a subsidiary of Finnish Minerals Group, has received a reasoned conclusion from the coordinating authority for the EIA procedure, on the key environmental impacts of the battery material production project. According to the reasoned conclusion, the EIA report meets the content requirements, and is of sufficient quality. The options examined in the EIA procedure have been deemed feasible from the perspective of environmental impacts.

Finnish Battery Chemicals submitted the EIA report to the coordinating authority, the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment for Southeast Finland, on 10 February 2021, and it was subsequently presented to the public in a webinar. The coordinating authority also organised a public hearing on the report and gathered all the opinions and relevant statements.

In the EIA report, the company proposed two alternative ways of implementing the industrial project. Option VE1 examined the establishment of a pCAM plant and a CAM plant in the Keltakallio area of Kotka. Option VE2 examined the establishment of a pCAM plant in the Hillonkylä area of Hamina and the establishment of a CAM plant in the Keltakallio area of Kotka. The third option (VE0) was not to build the plants at all.

“Our battery material production project has progressed as planned during the spring. We are currently preparing feasibility studies on both plants. The preliminary agreements for the industrial plots for building the plants have also been approved and are ready to be signed. Our next step is to go through the reasoned conclusion more thoroughly,” says Vesa Koivisto, SVP, Battery Operations at Finnish Minerals Group.

The reasoned conclusion issued by the coordinating authority is a key document that must be attached to the permit application along with the EIA report.

More information:
Vesa Koivisto, SVP, Battery Value Chain, +358 50 4536 322, vesa.koivisto(at)mineralsgroup.fi

Terms used in the text:
Precursor material – preliminary stage of the cathode active material used in lithium-ion batteries. Also referred to as precursor cathode active material, or pCAM.

Cathode active material – a powdery end product used to manufacture cathodes, the most valuable part of the battery cell, in cell plants. Abbreviated as CAM.