Ahtium
Ahtium was a Finnish mining company that operated the Talvivaara nickel mine from the company's establishment in 2004 until the mining business was sold to the state-owned in 2015.
Formerly listed on the London and Helsinki Stock Exchanges, the company was a constituent of the OMXH25 index. Its mining business, Talvivaara Sotkamo, went bankrupt in November 2014, and it is bound for liquidation, with at least 98% of equity lost, and €1.4 million debt outstanding. The mine had suffered several leaks of toxic metal-contaminated tailings, which had threatened local waterways. Members of the management were charged with criminal environmental offenses. There has been considerable government involvement, with the Government of Finland being the largest single owner through their investment company Solidium. In 2015, the newly established government-owned corporation Terrafame bought the mining business of Talvivaara. Since February 2017 Terrafame, operating the Talvivaara Mine, have new owners from Singapore Trafigura and its Galena Asset Management.
Ahtium filed for bankruptcy in March 2018.
History
The deposits, Kuusilampi and Kolmisoppi, were originally discovered in 1977, by the Geological Survey of Finland. Although the deposit was large, it was considered too poor for existing technology. Only bioheap leaching could concentrate the nickel enough, but the technology was still untested. The mining rights were eventually obtained by Outokumpu Corporation, which sold them at a nominal price of two euros to a former employee, Pekka Perä. The Talvivaara Mining Company was established in 2004 when it acquired the rights to mine sites at Sotkamo in Eastern Finland from Outokumpu. In 2006 a metals recovery trial was completed and the necessary financing was secured. Perä proceeded to list the company on the London Stock Exchange in 2007 and later on the Helsinki Stock Exchange in 2009. The firm was delisted from the London Stock Exchange in 2014, this was to reduce costs according to information on their website.The appropriate permits to commence mining were obtained in 2007 and metals production started late in 2008. The construction of the mine cost 560 million euros in 2007–2008, and an additional 22 million from HEX in 2009 enabled investments that increased production by 45%.
In 2010 the company announced the commencement of uranium production as a by-product from its normal mining operations in Sotkamo. The uranium produced will be in the form of yellowcake with an estimated annual production of approximately 350 tons. At a yellowcake price of $40/lb the uranium production could result in an additional €20m annual revenue. The capital investment costs were €30m and estimated annual production costs are €2m. The resulting uranium production is estimated to meet 80% of Finland's annual uranium demand, although reprocessing and enrichment would be required to be conducted abroad, and would effectively double the production of uranium in the EU. Currently, the uranium is deposited into the gypsum pond.
Government involvement
The Government of Finland owns 8.89% of Talvivaara, and additionally, the pension funds Ilmarinen, Varma and Keva own stock. The Minister of Economic Affairs is responsible for management of the stock. The previous minister, Jyri Häkämies, resigned in 2012 and was appointed as the new CEO of Confederation of Finnish Industries. The government supported the mine project by building 60 million euros worth of infrastructure.In the Talvivaara startup were present three ministers of Centre Party of Finland: Minister of Environment Paula Lehtomäki 2007-2011, Minister of Trade and Industry Mauri Pekkarinen and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. The family of Paula Lehtomäki acquired Talvivaara stock a few weeks before the announcement of uranium production plans. Minister Lehtomäki's husband owned €270,000 worth of Talvivaara stock. The director of the Kainuu environmental office was appointed by Minister Lehtomäki in 2007.
Finnish state ownership
is 100% Finnish state owned unit that controls 11 state owned stock companies. According to Solidium in November 2012 the state ownership in Talvivaara was 8,9 % with value of €31 million. In April 2013 state invested €47 million more. The state ownership is 16.7% with value of €60 million. Finnish state has no members in the Talvivaara board of directors.Financials
, the world's leading producer of nickel, has made a 10-year contract with Talvivaara Mining Company to purchase the latter's entire output of the nickel and cobalt production at market prices.The company has suffered poor profitability. In November 2013, metals recovery operations were ceased, and negotiations on a €40 million public offering were terminated as inconclusive. A corporate reorganization claim was filed in the Espoo district court. The company is deeply in debt to Nyrstar, Nordea Bank, Svenska Handelsbanken, Danske Bank, Varma, Cameco, Finnvera and a variety of equipment suppliers and other companies. Nyrstar continued to fund Talvivaara with a €20 million loan, which was strictly conditional on zinc ore deliveries. The official receiver tried to negotiate a financing method for the reorganization, and published the proposal for a company voluntary arrangement at the end of September 2014. According to the report, the mining business in Sotkamo was viable and could be made profitable. Unfortunately, the debt restructuring in the plan required a 97-99% cancellation of the debt, essentially diluting the original stock nearly out of existence, and required €100 million of new funding. However, this new funding could not be secured and Talvivaara Sotkamo filed for bankruptcy on November 6, 2014, and trading of the shares of the parent company, Talvivaara Oyj, was stopped in the Helsinki stock exchange.
Authorities estimate that the cost of needed environmental measures is €100 million with present capacity. If the company does not take action, the government will, regardless of the consent of the company.
Operations
The Talvivaara mine, since 2015 owned and operated by Terrafame, is one of the largest nickel mines in Finland. The mine is located in Sotkamo in Eastern Finland and employs 400 people. It is an open-pit mine, 22 km from Sotkamo and 28 km from Kajaani. The mine consists of two deposits 3 km apart, Kuusilampi and Kolmisoppi, and has an annual production capacity of over 10 million tonnes of ore. The mine has reserves amounting to 1 billion tonnes of ore grading 0.22% nickel, 0.13% copper, 0.5% zinc and 0.02% cobalt thus resulting 2.2 million tonnes of nickel, 1.3 million tonnes of copper, 5 million tonnes of zinc and 0.2 million tonnes of cobalt. 90% of the nickel is deposited in black schist rock, which contains 31% sulfides, most of which consist of iron sulfide minerals. Nickel-bearing sulfide minerals pentlandite, altered pentlandite and pyrrhotite are present in low concentrations, but are accessible by bioheap leaching.The metals are extracted by bioheap leaching, a method where natural bacteria living in the rock accelerate metal leaching by oxidation. In conventional leaching, a coat of porous sulfide rock is left behind on the shrinking core of nickel in the grain. In contrast, in bioheap leaching, the oxidation of sulfides causes eventual disintegration of the porous rock, exposing more area than achievable by chemical means only. The ground ore is built into heaps 1.2 km long and 400 m wide, and a recycling irrigation system is used to keep the grains wet. The heat produced by the bacterial oxidation keeps the heap warm throughout the year. Extraction is done twice in primary and secondary heaps. In a pilot heap, over 90% of nickel and 80% of zinc was recovered within 500 days of leaching. Cobalt and copper recoveries were lower, 14% and 2%, respectively. The resulting green-colored solution is then refined to the metals. Treatment with hydrogen sulfide precipitates copper sulfide, then zinc sulfide and finally nickel-cobalt sulfide.
In 2011 Cameco signed an agreement with Talvivaara, where Cameco would pay US$60 million to construct a uranium extraction circuit at the mine in Sotkamo. Talvivaara would then pay back the initial construction costs in the form of uranium concentrate; once the initial costs are paid Cameco would continue to purchase the uranium concentrate at a pricing formula based on market price on the day of delivery.
A railway track was built in order to transport the nickel-cobalt concentrate to a Norilsk Nickel smeltery in Harjavalta, Finland.
Regulation
Based on stock exchange regulations according to the Courts of appeal in Finland Pekka Perä gave misleading information about Talvivaara mining production volume in 2012 and 2013. He was fined 240 euros by Courts of appeal in Finland in March 2019. Ahtium Oy was fined 20 000 euros.Environmental impacts
Prosecutors were considering a case against Talvivaara Mining in January 2014. Talvivaara had received seven penalty payments on waste water management in June 2014. None of the penalty payments had been convicted to charge yet. In addition to small lakes located nearby the mine, the waste waters have affected many larger and farther away lakes too, i.e. Lake Kivijärvi, Lake Jormasjärvi and Lake Nuasjärvi.Sulfate emissions
The operation has caused controversy because of its environmental impacts. Sulfate concentration in the effluent has exceeded the permitted levels, causing severe pollution in the water course.Insufficient mixing caused the formation of an artificial halocline in a lake where effluent was discharged, which led to the lake bottom becoming anoxic. Reduction of sulfate into hydrogen sulfide by bacteria caused odour problems. Also, dust emissions were reported, but the prosecutor declined to press charges after a police investigation was completed.
MEPs Sirpa Pietikäinen and Satu Hassi initiated a European Commission investigation in June 2012 into Talvivaara's compliance with EU directives on mining waste.
Both said that environmental officials have not efficiently taken issue with the violations, and have thereby violated Finland's EU obligations.
Minister of the Environment Ville Niinistö indicated that the state may intervene with the operations unless the environmental impacts are brought under control. The Government of Finland responded in October 2012 with the conclusion that the local state authority, the Kainuu ELY Centre, has adequately monitored Talvivaara's operations.