X-ray Mineral Services (XMS) have announced the establishment of a new office based in Helsinki under the trading name X-ray Mineral Services Finland Oy. XMS is part of the Hafren Scientific Group which also trades under the names Chemostrat and Origin Analytical.

This development follows on from the participation of XMS in the BATCircle project in co-operation with Finnish partners. The BATCircle project is a 22 M€ Business Finland initiative involving research into the circular economy of battery metals, the key objective of which is to find ways of adding value to the battery metals sector. This will be achieved by more efficient screening and utilisation of mineral resources, enhancement of the metal refining processes, more efficient recycling of battery metals, improved co-operation between the companies and research organisations, as well as through the identification of new business opportunities between partners.

X-ray Mineral Services has a long tradition as a company specializing in X-ray diffraction (XRD) mineralogical and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) elemental analysis. As part of the Hafren Scientific Group, it is now a multi-disciplinary materials analysis centre offering a suite of techniques including Inductively Coupled Plasma – Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES), Inductively Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS), Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman Spectroscopy and associated portable technologies that provide comprehensive mineralogical, elemental and textural analyses. In addition to considerable oil and gas experience the company has diversified into a natural resources analytical consultancy active in the extractive, geotechnical, environmental, recycling and academic sectors.

Hafren’s principal focus in the oil and gas sector is to de-risk exploration and enable wells to be drilled with increased success and reduced environmental impact. Hafren are extending this philosophy to the battery mineral value chain by establishing new analytical workflows for mineral, metal and material characterisation and thereby support the entire battery ecosystem. Hafren’s strategy is to migrate its analytical capabilities and skills from oil and gas to support green technologies and circular economies such as battery resources and environmental impact sectors.

"Our geoscience group believes that timely delivery of high-quality data in the laboratory, in the field and in the mine is at the heart of robust analytical  solutions and the Hafren Group has had considerable success in providing clients with practical solutions that do not compromise on quality," said Tim Pearce, Hafren Group MD.

During a visit to Helsinki earlier this year, Dr Tim Pearce, Stephen Jones and Dr Lorenza Sardisco were invited to the British Embassy to meet with Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Finland Tom Dodd to discuss business development opportunities between the UK and Finland, in particular the provision of geological services to Finnish-based organisations. Also present were Alan Butcher and Pasi Heikkilä of the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK).

The establishment of the new office in Helsinki will facilitate the company’s future participation in the development of Finland’s battery cluster. It will enable the business to develop close associations with Finnish mining companies and expand its expertise and services within other business sectors which may require geological services.

As part of this expansion XMS Finland are very pleased to announce that Prof. Pekka Nurmi has been appointed as Senior Technical Advisor to represent the business in Finland. Pekka has over 30 years of experience in geosciences, management and the minerals sector. He has held several director and chief scientist positions at the Geological Survey of Finland and has been an Adjunct Professor in Economic Geology at the University of Helsinki. Pekka has promoted Finland’s mineral opportunities for the global industry for 25 years and led the preparation of Finland’s mineral strategy. Pekka has played a vital role in establishing major science and innovation programs, such as EIT Raw Materials, the Green Mining Programme and the Battery Cluster in Finland. Pekka’s publication list comprises approximately 90 contributions in scientific journals and books mainly related to economic geology, mineral exploration, sustainable mining and the minerals sector in general. Currently Pekka runs his own Tallinn based consulting and advisory firm Penurco OÜ, is a Senior Adviser at Aurora Exploration Services Oy and is also the Chair of the Board of Finland’s Natural Resources Research Foundation.

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: X-ray Mineral Services