While the Norwegian Nature Conservation Association and Nature and Youth have notified a lawsuit against the state to block the mining permit, Nordic Mining is building at full capacity on the construction site. CEO of Nordic Mining, Ivar Sund Fossum, is optimistic that financing of the project will be in order. – We hope to get everything in place quite quickly. We are extremely optimistic about the financing of Engebø, he says. Since 2006, the mining company has been working to start mining at Engebøfjellet by Førdefjorden in Sunnfjord municipality. Around NOK 100 million has already been invested in the city. The listed company has bought out landowners, and is now building the construction road up to Engebøfjellet, where they will extract the minerals. In addition, they must clear plots of land for the business building. IN PLACE: The work to prepare for mining is in full swing. Photo: Oddgeir Sæle / news When the Ministry of Trade and Fisheries finally granted the company an operating license in May this year, it was only a matter of time before the work was underway. In order to be able to start mining itself, the company has a financing need of close to NOK 2.5 billion, according to Finansavisen. – No wonder they start, says Øyvind Norli, professor of finance at BI School of Economics. If the company knows that it will not be difficult to get investors, and has the capital to start, it is no wonder that they start the work, says Norli. Nor does associate professor at the department of geosciences and petroleum at NTNU, Kurt Aasly, think that what Nordic Mining is doing at Engebø is out of the ordinary. – It is of course desirable to have a high degree of security in the financing, but it is not certain that it will be possible to secure the entire capital requirement immediately. In some cases, development often takes place in stages, with each stage starting when funding is secured, he explains. Take out half a billion The director of operations is not worried about getting the money in place. – We are investing in finalizing the financing package within a short time, says Kenneth Nakken Angedal, director of operations at Nordic Mining. Nordic Mining recently raised approximately half a billion kroner after failing to realize its ownership stake in Keliber Oy in Finland. According to managing director Fossum, most of this will go into the financing package for the project at Engebø. HECTIC: Nordic Mining plans to extract minerals by 2024. This is confirmed by operations director at Nordic Mining, Kenneth Nakken Angedal. Photo: Oddgeir Sæle / news Many struggles The project has taken time. During the last fifteen years, the company has been through several battles to get a license to operate. In addition to this, environmental organizations have fought against the start of operations. This spring, the police had to pick up protesters on the construction site almost every day. Fossum especially believes that the time it has taken to get the necessary permits in place is the reason why the investors have been waiting. – I think someone has become unsure whether this has been possible in Norway, but now all the permits are in place. A lot of noise around a project can potentially frighten investors, explains Kurt Aasly at NTNU. He refers, among other things, to when the mining company Nussir lost a billion dollar contract with the copper giant Aurubis in the summer of 2021. – The will to invest can often be linked to reputational challenges. Investors will not be associated with projects that can be claimed not to take into account the environment, sustainability, local population, minorities and the like, says Aasly. He adds that the Norwegian regulations are strict and the Norwegian mining companies are good at showing responsibility. Both Angedal and Fossum in Nordic Mining are optimistic that the extraction of rutile and garnet will start in 2024.
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