Sustainable Minerals program Kick-Off in Helsinki

The kickoff was used for partner meeting, program introduction and administration plans, including visits to geological laboratories and geological sites around Espoo. The Nordic Sustainable Minerals program will have two work packages one that will map the possibilities for traceability of minerals and the second will look into recovery and recycling of excavated mass.

The Nordic countries and the EU are highly dependent on minerals, which are a limited resource. The Nordic Sustainable Minerals program will map the possibilities for traceability of minerals and recovery and recycling of excavated mass.

Partner meetings and excursions

Thursday was used for partner meeting, introducing everybody, program introduction and discussing administration plans. In the afternoon, all the participants went on excursion to  GTMs research laboratories  and  geological, biological and historical sites  along a 3 km long field trip route in Leppävaara, Espoo.
This was a much-appreciated initiative to get to know each other better.

Presentation of Work Packages

Friday was for work package meeting and a more thorough introduction to the program. All the partners presented their contribution to and the work packages. This was followed by a round table discussion , including predefined questions, brief SWOT and Q&A. Potential synergies between the work packages were also discussed.

Read more about the Sustainable Minerals program

Talk about minerals with Norwegian program partner NGU

To get the participants view of the program we talked to Kari Aslaksen Aasly, Head of Mineral Resources at Geological Survey of Norway, NGU.
Kari took the time to explain why NGU a part of this program.

“We perceive this as a part of NGUs mandate. We have been given the task of making an assessment of the Norwegian mineral resources potential. It is also an opportunity for finding new ways.
Surveying mineral resources is a part of our responsibility. Being allowed to do it together with Nordic colleagues is of course very motivating. It is also very motivating to have the privilege to work with researchers outside NGU. So, there was of course never any doubt that we should have been involved in this. At the same time, we see it as a task given from the Nordic Council of Ministers through our ministry, which is the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries.”

She goes on to explain what NGU expect to get out of the project.

“We hope to learn more and establish even closer networks with our colleagues in the Nordic countries. Further we hope to find a good methodology for how to map secondary resources, and for how to be able to trace a resource completely. Take a mobile phone or a car battery, for example, we want to be able to track the minerals in there so the end user knows where the mobile phone origins from. We believe that will be very challenging and we don’t think we’ll find all the answers in this project here, but we may come a little along the way.”

“We hope to learn more and establish even closer networks with our colleagues in the Nordic countries. Further we hope to find a good methodology for how to map secondary resources, and for how to be able to trace a resource completely."

Kari Aslaksen Aasly

Regarding the question about where the project will have the most impact, Kari is very clear.

“I believe that for Norway’s part, it will have an impact in the form of an increased awareness of the fact that there may be resources lying around in all the many tailings landfills around Norway. In general, it will also increase awareness of Norwegian and Nordic mineral resources, and especially critical raw materials. This also goes for other minerals outside the EU's critical list, and the fact that we have a good, large resource potential in Norway and the Nordic region. We can extract resources in a sustainable way in the Nordic countries. We have stricter regulations than most other places in the world and a high level of technology."

What about the business part of the project? Is it realistic to achieve this and what happens if this is not achieved?

“It's very difficult to say since NGU do not work with the business or the marketing part of the project. That said, I think that we can lay the foundations for the industry to explore the economic aspects since there is quite a lot of research in this project. We must test and make assessments about what is possible and what is not possible, for example in relation to traceability. Then we'll see if the industry is willing to go further with our findings."

When we get to the topic about the future for sustainable minerals, Kari lights up.
“I think it's bright! Minerals are extremely important in reaching the global climate goals. We are forced to shift to more renewable energy, and in order to have renewable energy you need quite a lot more minerals than we use today. This project and mineral resources have a very important role in the green shift. It’s possible to do things sustainable in the Nordic countries. We have strict regulations, and we have a lot of modern technology available. This is prerequisites for things to be done in the right way. 
Personally, I think that all of us in the Nordic countries are big consumers of a lot. In addition to reduce the consumption, we also have a responsibility to produce the raw material that we use in modern technology. We can’t just ensure that it is done in other places in the world where we can close our eyes for what’s happening. That’s an important aspect of this.”