Finland gives green light to uranium mining

The Finnish government gave the green light on Thursday for state-owned Terrafame to extract and refine uranium at a mine in eastern Finland, paving the way for the country's first uranium mining on a commercial scale. The announcement by the government in a statement confirmed a Reuters report on Wednesday.

Terrafame took over the mine, which has been producing nickel for years and was previously known as Talvivaara, in the Kainuu region back in 2015, after environmental hurdles had led the mine to file for bankruptcy. Terrafame plans to recover uranium from ore at the mine and refine it into yellowcake, a semi-finished uranium oxide product used to manufacture fuel for nuclear power plants.

State-owned Finnish Minerals Group owns 71.8% of Terrafame, while Trafigura Group's private investment arm Galena holds 27.6% and Finnish insurer Sampo 0.6%.