The Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland (Avi) has granted an environmental permit and a start-up permit for a battery material factory in the southeastern city of Hamina. The project is a Chinese-Finnish joint venture, 40 percent owned by the Finnish Minerals Group.
The permit issued to the company CNGR Finland allows annual production of 60,000 tons of battery chemicals as well as energy production for the facility’s production needs.
The factory is to be located adjacent to the port of Hamina, about 150km east of Helsinki. The factory will release treated wastewater into the Gulf of Finland, south of the port.
The decision includes a permit in accordance with the Water Act of 2011, which concerns, among other things, the placement of a discharge pipe and dredging in the city's water area, as well as a preparation permit.
CNGR Finland revised its plans for the factory after Avi received hundreds of responses from the public regarding its application. The most common concerns were related to discharge of wastewater into the sea and its effect on fish stocks and real estate.
Avi: No "significant environmental hazard" from sulphates
The environmental permit sets strict limits on wastewater and exhaust emissions, including metals, nitrogen and particles released into the water and air.
However, the decision does not require the removal of sulphate from wastewater. Based on Avi’s preliminary assessments, sulphate emissions do not pose a significant environmental hazard.
The firm was ordered to monitor operational emissions and their impacts, and to pay an annual fishery fee.
In a press release, CNGR promised to carefully monitor environmental impacts and to comply with Finnish legislation in all its operations.
The plans also include the construction of a recycling facility for battery materials, which CNGR says will promote the circular economy and strengthen the region's sustainable industry.
The factory is to produce precursor cathode active material (pCAM), a preliminary stage of the cathode active material used to manufacture lithium-ion batteries.
The decision was published on the Avi website on Monday. The company has until 20 March to appeal the decision.
The Finnish Minerals Group, which owns 40 percent of the Hamina factory, plans another battery materials plant for nearby Kotka. That facility is to make cathode active material. According to the company, the sites could turn the Kymenlaakso region into one of Europe's largest clusters of battery material plants.
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