WELCOME TO FEM 2025!
Do you want to know what’s hot in the Fennoscandian exploration and mining – the current players and upcoming commodities?
FEM 2025 Conference is sold out and the registration is closed (21 August 2025).
The 15th Fennoscandian Exploration and Mining conference (FEM), will be held again in Levi, Lapland, Finland on 28 – 30 October 2025.
As customary, our participants represent a wide range of exploration and mining sector companies operating in the Fennoscandian region, key stakeholders, public authorities, and businesses supporting the industry.
Biennial FEM conference, organized since 1998, is one of the most significant and largest mining industry events in Europe. FEM 2023 Conference in sunny and snowy Lapland was a sold-out event with 1200 participants from 33 different countries and nearly 400 organizations.
Top reasons to attend
Outstanding networking opportunities – meet the key actors and influencers face-to-face
- Mix and mingle with your colleagues, business partners, form new relationships, and strengthen existing ones. Learn more about the exploration and mining, economic geology, research, environmental and social aspects, permitting and investments in Fennoscandia.
High-level speakers, engaging presentations, short courses and mine excursions.
- Opportunities and challenges in the mineral sector are increasing – there is much to talk about and discuss. When you are active in your industry, you can develop a reputation as an expert to your peers and your clients.
Be inspired, learn and share your vision.
- Our goal is to advance and develop business by sharing ideas and insights. We aim to help building connections globally and promoting mineral industry.
Widen your network, do business, bring fresh ideas back to your company – and have fun!
– FEM 2025 Organizers
SCOTT HALLEY
Consultant, Mineral Mapping Pty Ltd, CODES, University of Tasmania, Australia
Pre-conference short course: Introduction to IoGas and Applied geochemistry of ore deposits
Keynote: Tracking magmatic fractionation in Ni-Cu-PGE-Au bearing mafic and ultramafic rocks using immobile trace elements
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Scott Halley worked as an exploration geologist for 20 years in Archean gold, VMS, porphyry Cu and epithermal systems. Scott is a research collaborator with CODES, University of Tasmania, and regularly teaches geochemistry short courses at CODES. Since 2005 he has run a geochemistry consulting business. He specializes in characterization of rock types, hydrothermal alteration and pathfinder patterns using ICP geochemistry. He has consulted to over 200 companies in more than 25 countries.
NATASHA SVANEBY
Director Project Finance · Swedish Export Credit Corporation
Keynote: A banking perspective on exploration- and mining projects focussing on E&S and other critical aspects
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Natasha is a Director of Project Finance at the Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK) since 2020, focusing on financing projects in the metals & mining sector as well as renewable in power generation, where all projects have strong ESG focus. She has +15 years’ experience in international commercial banking, holding various relationship- and structuring roles assisting the Nordic industries in their worldwide reach with financing solutions. Natasha holds an MSc in Business & Economics.
SIMON BOLSTER
Managing Director, Portable PPB Pty Ltd, Australia
Keynote: Valuing time and how some of the latest technologies are compressing timelines to fast track and de-risk new discoveries and mines – case studies in Finland with Oulu Mining School
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Simon is a geoscientist specialising in regolith, geochemistry and remote sensing with over 35 years’ experience in the gold industry, working in 30 countries across 5 continents. He has worked for several major mining companies, including Normandy, Anglo American and Newmont, where he held the roles of Consulting Geochemist and Global Manager Remote Sensing. Simon also does case studies in Finland with Oulu Mining School.
He has been Head of Exploration for a successful explorer in West Africa, managing teams that resulted in new economic gold discoveries at a number of projects. Simon is a co-founder and Managing Director of Perth based Portable PPB which has completed the R&D and commercialisation of the game changing patented detectORETM low level gold by pXRF technique, that enables gold explorers to discover, define and mine gold faster and smarter.
KAREN REES
President of the PDAC, Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada
Keynote: Propelling Canadian Mineral Explorers – Connecting Strategies to Real-World Impacts
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Karen Rees holds a B.Sc. Honours Geology degree from the University of Saskatchewan (1984) and is a member of Professional Geoscientists Ontario (2002). She has enjoyed a 37-year career in mineral exploration, starting as a field and project geologist in northwestern Ontario, northern Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. She later managed teams on multi-commodity projects across Ontario and contributed to governance and corporate functions.
Karen serves on the boards of three junior exploration companies with projects in Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba. A passionate advocate for the minerals sector, she began volunteering with PDAC in 2011 and was elected to the board in 2018. She continues to serve on PDAC committees including Executive, Awards, Human Resource Development, and the Student-Industry Mineral Exploration Workshop (S-IMEW), a flagship program that celebrated its 16th anniversary in 2025.
IAIN STEWART
El Hassan Research Chair for Sustainability, UNESCO Chair in Geoscience and Society
Professor of Geoscience Communication, Sustainable Earth Institute, University of Plymouth, UK
Keynote:Selling Planet Earth: Geology for Sustainable Development
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Iain Stewart currently serves as Professor of Geoscience Communication at the University of Plymouth, where he holds the UNESCO Chair in Geoscience and Society. Since 2021, he has also been the El Hassan bin Talal Research Chair in Sustainability at the Royal Scientific Society in Jordan. With a research background in earthquake geology and geohazards, his academic interests are in geoscience applications for sustainable development, being founder and inaugural Director of the University of Plymouth’ s Sustainable Earth Institute. Beyond academia, he is widely recognized for his science broadcasting work with BBC television, presenting acclaimed series such as “Earth: The Power of the Planet” and “How Earth Made Us.” His contributions to public engagement in geoscience have earned him numerous accolades, including an MBE in 2013 and the Geological Society of London’s Coke Medal in 2024.
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ESA SANDBERG
Geologist, retired
Keynote: Challenges of till geochemistry in gold exploration
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Esa Sandberg gained his MSc from the University of Turku in 1974. After graduation he spent the next 40 years working as a project manager in exploration and mining for Outokumpu and other mining companies both in Finland and internationally. His primary focus was gold exploration, where till geochemistry played a significant role.
FEM news 24 June 2025
FEM 2025 exhibitors are now published at https://femconference.fi/fem-2025-exhibitors/.
FEM news 19 November 2024
Important information for those interested in the event. Please take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the information on the FEM website. For example, accommodation, event registration and booth booking. If someone else from the company you work for...
FEM news 18 November 2024
Interested in booking a FEM 2025 trade show booth? We recommend visiting this page where you can find more information about the booking process and the booth options: booth booking. Worldwide, it is a very common practice that exhibitors from the previous event have...
FEM news 18 November 2024
As FEM 2025 is not a fair, entrance to the conference and trade show is open only for registered participants wearing the event name badge. All participants must be registered via online registration form. The entrance control will be tightened in 2025 for safety...
FEM news 18 November 2024
Fennoscandian Exploration and Mining (FEM 2025) registration will be opened on 24 February 2025. Each participant, presenter and exhibitor must register for the conference in advance and pay the registration fee. Participant fee (participant, invited speaker,...
FEM News 9 October 2023
FEM 2023 is sold out and registration closed. We have 1200 registered participants.