The message was clear from EU Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and Competitive Circular Economy, Jessika Roswall:
“The world around us is changing rapidly. Old certainties are replaced with new realities. Your industries have a clear role to play for our competitiveness and for our security. You are important in making Europe competitive again.”
She also underscored the importance of collaboration:
“It is also extremely important that we stick together. It has never been so important as it is now.”
The Nordic Forum on Raw Materials Summit took place for the second time in Oslo 10-11 March and gathered professionals in the mining and minerals sector, in business, academia, politics and finance to discuss topics such as export opportunities, attraction of capital, geopolitics, EU and the critical raw materials act, AI and much more.
Read more about the Nordic Forum on Raw Materials
Need to attract more international capital
In the session ‘How minerals from the Nordic region can become an export adventure’ Eva Camerer from Innovation Norway, Mikael Johansson from Business Sweden and Likka Homanen from Business Finland discussed opportunities and challenges of increasing Nordic mineral exports.
The panel agreed that the Nordics have a good starting point due to a Nordic brand known for quality, sustainability, trust and innovation, but we need to attract more international capital:
“We have to work more systematically in attracting international capital. But we already have a strength in the fact that we are working together. Because as an investor it is much more attractive to look at the Nordics as one big market,” said Eva Camerer and continued:
“I think we should act quicker. We are a stable and trustworthy partner which is absolutely important when you want to attract investors. But we need to gear up because it is more urgent now. That is the news of today.”
Act as a world-champion
Attraction of international capital was also on the agenda during the session, ‘What is the best pitch?’. Hans Arne L’orange from the investment bank Clarkson Securities discussed how to approach potential investors for Nordic mining projects.
L’orange explained that the Nordic mining industry must understand that it competes in an international environment when it comes to financing:
“You are competing for global capital in an international market. When you prepare your sales pitch for potential investors, you need to think, prepare, train and act as a world champion,” he said.
Control of critical minerals is essential
There has been a growing interest in Greenland as an area with critical minerals and raw materials. In the session ‘De-risking critical mineral supply chains: The Greenlandic-European Perspective’ Bo Lidegaard from Kaya Partners shared his analysis of the main drivers behind USA’s interests in Greenland and underscored the increased importance of European mineral extraction.
According to Lidegaard, there has been a growing recognition in the USA that China has gained monopoly over both extracting and processing of the minerals that are listed as critical by both the USA and the EU. This has led to a situation where China can stop providing components that are critical for both green industries and key parts of arms manufacturing.
“This situation has made the USA conclude that we are no longer living in a world of a market economy but in a world of a modern form of war economy,” Lidegaard explained before continuing:
“This is a very important recognition because it means it is not the question of the price of these minerals, but it is the question of the control of them. China has not only built the production capacity for specific products, but they also control the full supply chain behind including critical minerals and the technologies to process them.”
“The control of critical minerals has become a key imperative for the USA and for Europe,” Lidegaard said.
Lidegaard also underscored the key role of the mineral industry in the current geopolitical landscape:
“And when you look at what is going these days in Europe with the mobilization of our defense industries it is fundamental to recognize that there is no European defense industry without European extraction and processing of critical minerals. These are interrelated.”
Call to action to the Nordic governments
A key message from the second Nordic Forum on Raw Materials Summit was that the Nordic mineral industry has an important role to play in the current geopolitical situation and as a key partner to the EU. At the moment, the EU consumes about 25% of the world’s raw materials but only produces 3%, making it heavily dependent on imports from other regions. This gives the Nordic countries and the autonomous regions the opportunity to become a sustainable supplier of critical raw materials for Europe.
The Nordic Forum on Raw Materials has agreed on four call to actions to the Nordic Council of Ministers and their national governments to strengthen competitiveness and secure the Nordic region’s leading position in mineral extraction.
The four call to actions:
Expedite approval of mineral projects: Policymakers should streamline approval processes and reduce regulatory burdens to enhance the attractiveness of investments in a sustainable mineral industry. This includes better coordination of regulations, implementing the requirements according to the Critical Raw Material Act by introducing a single point of contact and setting clear time limits for each step in the permitting process.
Facilitate capital flow into the Nordic mineral industry: Development of political frameworks that mitigate the risks associated with investing Nordic private capital in the mineral sector. This will encourage more robust financial support for the industry.
Ensure industry access to energy: Develop policies that maintain competitive energy prices and ensure a stable energy supply for the industry. Rising energy costs and shortages threaten the competitiveness of the mining sector and complicate the transition to an electrified machinery fleet.
Increase value creation from mineral extraction within the Nordic region: Development of a comprehensive Nordic plan to increase local processing of minerals, thereby enhancing regional value creation. This will position the Nordic region as a leader in the refining of mineral resources.
Håkan Lind, Head of Program at Nordic Innovation, received the four call to action points by the end of the Nordic Forum on Raw Materials Summit.
“Building a strong mineral industry across the Nordic countries has never been more important than it is today. I am pleased to see that the Nordic Forum on Raw Materials has brought the industry together and that they have now agreed on four key action points for the Nordic governments. This is a result that provides a clear direction for the way forward,” says Håkan Lind.
Background
The Nordic Forum on Raw Materials is supported under Nordic Innovation’s Sustainable Minerals initiatives. The forum is developed in collaboration with Svemin, Swedish Association of Mines, Mineral and Metal Producers, Norwegian Mineral Industry and FinnMin, Finnish Mining Association.
Read more about our work within Sustainable Minerals here
