Nordic Minerals and Mining Value Chain
Mining has been a cornerstone of the Nordic region for decades, encompassing both base metals and CRMs. Although the Nordics contribute modestly to global mining output, the region plays a pivotal role in CRM extraction and refining within Europe. This makes the region essential for supporting Europe's ambitions to reduce resource dependencies and strengthen supply security.
Traditionally, Nordic mining value chains have been domestic and vertically integrated, covering a range of minerals. However, there are notable exceptions: Norway and Iceland's refining industries are largely disconnected from Nordic supply, relying on imported raw materials (alumina). Boliden stands out as the only major company operating across several Nordic countries. While metal recycling is well-established for traditional metals, there are significant untapped opportunities to expand recycling for CRMs, which would advance the circular economy and decrease supply dependency.
As a result, cross-border collaboration within the Nordic mining sector has historically been limited. Nonetheless, new types of Nordic collaboration are emerging, particularly in the development of cross-border value chains for REEs and graphite.
Exploration | Mining | Refining | Recycling | Key takeaways |
 |  |  |  | Mining in the Nordics has a long-standing tradition, encompassing both base metals as well as critical raw materials (CRMs). Despite being a modest contributor on the global stage, the Nordics have a dominant role in CRM extraction and refining in Europe, making them essential for securing Europe’s ambition to reduce resource dependencies. Mining value chains have traditionally been domestic and vertically integrated across various minerals, except for Norway and Iceland, whose refining industries are largely disconnected from Nordic supply. While recycling is well-established for traditional metals, significant opportunities remain untapped for advancing the circular economy and reducing supply dependency. With Boliden as the only major player operating across multiple countries, cross-border collaboration within the Nordic mining sector remains limited. There are however different types of Nordic collaboration present and cross-border value chains are starting to emerge for new CRM mining projects. |
Nordic exploration spending tripled since 2015, driven by critical minerals and gold projects, holding 100% of EU31 projects in nickel, REEs, and PGMs. | The Nordics account for over 90% of European extraction of CRMs but less than 4% globally. Mining activity is concentrated in Finland, Norway, and Sweden, with each country typically specialising in specific minerals. | The Nordics have developed considerable refining capacities building on its affordable green energy resources. Refining has traditionally been domestic and vertically integrated across various minerals. | Nordic recycling largely targets base metals with established value chains; CRM recovery is still low yet advancing in areas like battery materials. |
Exploration Trends
Exploration activity in the Nordics has surged, with spending tripling since 2015. This growth has been driven primarily by projects focused on critical minerals and gold. The region holds all EU31
EU31 = EU27 + Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and United Kingdom
The Fraser Institute’s Annual Survey of Mining Companies 2024 ranked the Nordics among the top 10 most attractive jurisdictions for mining investment, citing high security, comprehensive geological databases, and political stability.
Geological Survey of Sweden. (2025). Statistics of the Swedish Mining Industry 2024
Overall, exploration investments in the Nordics have grown approximately 3.3 times from EUR 100 million in 2015 to EUR 330 million in recent years. Specifically, Swedish investments increased 3.3 times to about EUR 200 million
Geological Survey of Sweden, Mineral statistics.
Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (Tukes). Mineral exploration decreased, mining investments increased. (28 March 2025)
John Zadeh, Nordic Mining Overview 2025, Discovery Alert. (7 April 2025)
Norwegian Directorate of Mining. Bergrettigheter og undersøkelseskostnader. (19 February 2025
Mining Production
The Nordics are significant contributors to European CRM extraction, accounting for over 90% of the region's production of cobalt, nickel, titanium, PGMs, graphite, and phosphorus. The region also dominates European iron ore extraction (95%). However, on a global scale, the Nordics contribute less than 4% to overall mineral extraction, underscoring Europe's continued reliance on non-European sources for industry supply.
Mining activity is concentrated in Finland, Norway, and Sweden, with each country typically specialising in specific minerals. While Sweden is mostly extracting iron ore, copper and zinc, Finland focuses on nickel and cobalt. Norway has two operational mines for titanium and one for iron ore. In cases where extraction overlaps, one country usually accounts for more than 75% of the total output for that mineral, except for silicon and gold. Greenland’s mining sector is limited, with only two active mines, while Denmark and Iceland have minimal operations, extracting mainly clays and volcanic rocks, respectively.
World Mining Data 2025. Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance, 2025
Refining Capabilities
The Nordics have developed robust refining capacities, leveraging abundant and affordable green energy resources. This is particularly notable in cobalt, titanium, nickel, and aluminium refining where the region accounts for 60–100% of the EU31’s total capacity.
United States Geological Survey. Mineral Commodity Summaries. (Various years)
Norway and Iceland are prominent for their significant aluminium smelting capacities, despite not extracting raw materials domestically. Mineral processing and refining typically take place within the same country – and often within the same company – that extracts the minerals. There is clear specialisation: Norway leads in titanium (100%) and aluminium (63%), Finland in cobalt (75%), and Sweden focuses on iron ore (49%) and copper (57%).
Despite these strengths, the region currently lacks large-scale refining capacity for lithium, REEs, and graphite. However, several projects, such as Keliber (lithium) in Finland, REEtec (REEs) and Vianode (graphite) in Norway as well as Talga (graphite) in Sweden, are underway to establish domestic processing capabilities for these materials.
Recycling Initiatives and Challenges
Recycling activities in the Nordic region primarily target base metals, while the recovery of CRMs remains limited but is gradually improving, particularly in battery recycling. Enhanced metal recycling has the potential to significantly strengthen Europe’s clean energy supply by 2050 and reduce dependence on primary raw materials. At present, many CRM recycling rates remain below 1%, underscoring the need for accelerated progress. In response, the EU Critical Raw Materials Act has set an ambitious target to meet 25% of CRM demand through recycling by 2030.
Utilising secondary (recycled) metals instead of primary sources can greatly reduce emissions – for example, recycled aluminium has a 96% lower CO2 footprint compared to primary aluminium. Ongoing Nordic projects, developed by companies such as Hydrovolt, Fortum, and Stena, are focused on battery recycling. Despite progress, several challenges remain:
- Weak business cases and technical limitations due to small waste streams or low metal content, making recycling uneconomical.
- Poor collection and sorting processes, resulting in end-of-life metals failing to reach recyclers.
- Complex product designs, including miniaturisation and mixed metals, which complicate recycling – especially for EV batteries where chemical compositions are proprietary.
- Outdated regulations that restrict the use of recycled materials in certain applications.
- Lack of European customers for recycled battery materials, as gigafactory development has encountered scale-up challenges.KU Leuven and Eurometaux. (2022). Metals for clean energy: Pathways to solving Europe's raw materials challenge
Cross-border collaborations
Cross-border collaborations in the Nordics are growing, with new value chains beginning to take shape, particularly within critical raw material mining projects. Several types of partnerships have emerged, highlighting the interconnectedness of companies and resources across national boundaries.
For example, Swedish company Grangex owns the Norwegian mine Sydvaranger and is planning to reopen it for iron ore extraction. Grangex also operates other sites in Sweden, including Dannemora, Sala Bly, and Grängesberg. Similarly, Bluelake Mineral, another Swedish firm, owns Norway’s Joma Gruver mine, with plans to restart copper and zinc extraction. Beyond Norway, Bluelake Mineral is actively exploring for copper-zinc, nickel, and gold in Sweden and Finland, illustrating how companies are leveraging assets across the region.
Some collaborations involve a single company operating in multiple countries. Swedish Boliden is a prime example, supplying its Norwegian smelter in Odda with raw materials sourced from its mining operations in both Sweden and Finland where the company also houses other smelters. This ongoing arrangement demonstrates efficient resource integration within the Nordic region.
There are also partnerships between different companies and countries. Canadian Neo Advanced Materials is exploring REE mining in Greenland, aiming to supply their separation plant and magnet factory in Estonia. Greenroc, meanwhile, is developing a graphite mining project in Greenland and an anode materials processing plant in Norway, further tying Greenlandic resources to Nordic processing capabilities.
Cross-border supply chains extend into the steel industry as well, with Swedish company LKAB providing iron ore to steelmaker SSAB’s plant in Finland. Another notable collaboration is Finnish Outokumpu’s 10-year offtake agreement with Greenland Resources, a Canadian-owned firm, for the future supply of molybdenum – an arrangement covering about half of Outokumpu’s annual requirement and valued at approximately USD 160 million per year.
Additionally, Norwegian REEtec’s separation and processing plant for REEs will be supplied with raw materials from LKAB in Sweden – who is also the largest shareholder of REEtec.
Together, these collaborations reflect a trend towards integrated, cross-border value chains in the Nordics, aimed at strengthening the region’s position in the extraction, processing, and supply of critical raw materials essential for Europe’s industrial needs.