FinnCobalt Oy’s Hautalampi mine development project Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA”) Programme published and submitted

Eurobattery Minerals AB (Nordic Growth Market: "BAT"; “the Company”), a growth company in the mining and exploration industry with the vision to help Europe become self-sufficient in ethical battery minerals, today announces that FinnCobalt Oy has submitted Hautalampi projects EIA-Programme to the North Karelia Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (“ELY-centre“). FinnCobalt Oy expects to submit the final EIA-report before May 2021.The Company has the option to acquire 100% of FinnCobalt Oy in a staged acquisition.

“I am happy with the progress in the Hautalampi project and that we have now submitted the important environmental impact assessment programme. With our strong focus on ethics and traceability the EIA is a first important step in providing the EV industry with sustainably mined battery minerals,” said Roberto García Martínez, CEO of Eurobattery Minerals.

About the EIA-programme

The EIA-programme is a plan defining the impacts to be assessed during the EIA-procedure and the methods of the assessment. The programme includes basic information on FinnCobalt Oy’s planned mining and processing operations and the options under assessment, a plan of communications during the EIA procedure as well as an assessment on the schedule of the project and the EIA procedure.

According to the Act on Environmental Impact Assessment, the EIA procedure will examine the environmental effects resulting from Hautalampi projects mining operations and processing operations. These effects concern:

• people’s health, living conditions and well-being in the area
• surface and ground waters, soil, air, climate, vegetation, organisms and diversity of nature
• community structure, buildings, landscape and cultural heritage as well as
• the relationships between these factors.

Three options under evaluation

Three options will be evaluated in the EIA-procedure:

Option 0: No project development at all.

Option 1: Underground mine with adjoining flotation plant to produce copper- and nickel-cobalt concentrate will be developed. Concentrates will be sold and trucked off-site for further processing.

Option 2: Underground mine with adjoining flotation plant to produce copper- and nickel-cobalt concentrate will be developed. Copper concentrate will be sold and trucked off-site; nickel-cobalt concentrate will be processed on-site to produce chemicals for further battery production.

The EIA procedure advances from the programme to a report

The most essential steps in the EIA procedure include: an assessment of the current state of the environment; definitions of various project alternatives, assessments of their environmental impacts, and a comprehensive picture of the impacts of the project and its implementation alternatives, presented together with assessments of the scale and significance of such impacts; plans for the mitigation of detrimental impacts; and the publication of an accurate and coherent EIA report. It must assess impacts on nature, human beings and the built environment and cover exceptional situations, environmental accidents, and means to mitigate adverse impacts.

After the programme phase, an EIA report on the assessed environmental effects will be drafted based on the EIA programme as well as opinions and statements presented on the programme. The EIA report will present, for instance, the current state of the environment, the environmental effects of the assessed options and their significance as well as a comparison of the assessed options. In addition, the report will detail methods to prevent and mitigate harmful effects, for instance.

The EIA procedure is an open process, and residents and other stakeholders have the opportunity to take part in it. Residents and other interested parties may participate in the process by expressing their views to the Eastern Finland ELY Centre, which acts as the coordinating authority. The organisation has published the EIA-programme on the internet https://www.ymparisto.fi/hautalammenkaivosYVA.

Opinions on the EIA-programme concerning the project development may be submitted to the North Karelia Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment before 8th January 2021. Opinions should be sent to kirjaamo.pohjois-karjala@ely-keskus.fi or PL 69, 80101 Joensuu.

Open meeting Thursday 17th December

An open digital meeting on the EIA programme will be held commencing on Thursday, 17th December at 17:00 EET o’clock.  Invitation can be obtained by sending an e-mail to petra.paldanius@envineer.fi or from the web-page between 16th-17th December https://www.finncobalt.com/?lang=fi.

The public will have the opportunity to express their views on the environmental impact assessment. Another meeting will be held after the EIA report has been completed.

Please observe that the meeting and all material will be all Finnish language.

For further information, please contact:

Roberto García Martínez, CEO 

roberto@eurobatteryminerals.com

https://investors.eurobatteryminerals.com//en/

About Eurobattery Minerals

Eurobattery Minerals AB is a Swedish mining company listed on NGM Nordic SME (BAT). As the foundation of the battery value chain the company’s vision is to help Europe become self-sufficient in ethical and fully traceable battery minerals for the electric vehicle industry. The company is focused on exploration and development of several nickel-cobalt-copper projects in Europe to supply raw material critical to the expanding electric vehicle battery market. Please visit www.eurobatteryminerals.com for more information.

Augment Partners AB, e-mail: info@augment.se, phone: +46 8 505 651 72, is the company’s Mentor.