Talvivaara to produce uranium

Production and Markets

Publishing Date: 09 Feb 2010 1:13pm GMT
Author: Mining Journal

Talvivaara Mining Company plc, the Finnish nickel and zinc producer, says it plans to extract 350t/y of uranium as a by-product from its existing operations.

The company says that while the Talvivaara orebody does not contain sufficient grades to support uranium mining, the concentration of uranium in the leach solution is sufficient for exploitation.

The company says it plans to recover the uranium from its main leaching process by using a safe and technically simple solvent extraction process which is applied to metals recovery.

The project is expected to cost €30 million (US$22 million) with production costs totalling €2 million per year.

Pekka Perä, the company’s chief executive, commented: “The development of our solvent extraction method demonstrates the innovative skills of our internal team and of our partner organisations and is a perfect fit with our strategy of carefully recovering precious and useful substances from our ore.”

Talvivaara says it is currently in discussions with leading companies in the industry regarding a potential co-operation for this project, after which its final financing and operating model will be determined.