Terrafame applies for uranium recovery licence

Multi-metal company Terrafame Ltd on Tuesday submitted a licence application under the Nuclear Energy Act to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

The application is addressed to the government and is for the recovery of natural uranium obtained as a by-product of mining activities at Sotkamo. The main products from the mine are nickel and zinc, said an official press release.

The Terrafame industrial site includes an almost fully built uranium recovery facility from the time of the company’s predecessor. Once the completion work is performed, it will be possible to recover uranium at the facility.

According to the company's licence application, uranium is present in small concentrations in the bedrock at the Sotkamo mine.

The intention is that the extraction process will enable the uranium to be used as a semi-finished product for further processing into nuclear fuel abroad. The company asserts that uranium recovery would be economically viable and would allow natural resources to be used more effectively in Terrafame’s mining activities. A positive environmental impact would occur in that considerably less uranium would end up in the bioheapleaching facilities, the process sediment tanks and current metal products.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment will publish a public notice about Terrafame’s uranium recovery project in the region’s newspapers and on the Ministry's website on November 6.

The Ministry is to organise consultation meeting, open to all, on the uranium recovery project under the Nuclear Energy Act on November 7.

Terrafame’s application can be viewed until 31 January 2018.