Terrafame

Terrafame Ltd is a Finnish state-controlled mining and battery-chemicals company based in Sotkamo, Finland, primarily owned by the government-backed Finnish Minerals Group (56.2%) and Trafigura. Founded in 2015 to take over a nickel mine from an insolvent operator, Terrafame produces nickel, zinc, cobalt, copper and uranium. Its operation is highly integrated, in Finnish Minerals Group’s words: ore is mined on-site and processed using bioleaching, where microbial activity extracts metals from low-grade ore. In 2021 it opened a battery-chemicals plant that refines nickel-cobalt sulfide into nickel sulfate and cobalt sulfate for lithium-ion battery cathodes, with nominal capacity to supply nickel sulfate for roughly one million EV batteries annually. The Kolmisoppi deposit is a Strategic Project under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (Commission decision of March 25, 2025) for battery-grade nickel and cobalt.

In May 2026 Terrafame launched a pre-feasibility study, led by Worley, on recovering scandium from a side stream of its uranium recovery plant; the company expects to conclude it by the end of 2026, with a final investment decision targeted in early 2027. Terrafame calls scandium a rare earth element; USGS excludes most scandium from its rare-earth data.