Due to an increase in rainfall and melting snow, the nickel and zinc mine in Talvivaara, now run by a company called Terrafame, will discharge 750,000 cubic metres of water into nearby waterways, according to the company.
Terrafame said that it has contacted the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY) to inform them that the company is unable to comply with guidelines of the mine’s environmental permit.
The company said that if the water is not drained out of the mine under controlled circumstances there is a chance that the water could continue its flow into the environment.
The Terrafame mine, is located in the county of Sotkamo, some 40 km southwest of Kajaani, whose ownership was undertaken by a Finnish state-owned company last August. The mine is under investigation for a series of environmental crimes and financial difficulties that nearly brought the mine to collapse in recent times.
In August the financially-struggling Talvivaara mine was handed over to the state-owned company and renamed Terrafame.
In August the chief executive of Talvivaara Pekka Perä admitted that the company had caused environmental damage as a result of a series of toxic leaks in the years leading up to 2013, but denied any crime had been committed.
The company’s communications director Olli-Pekka Nissinen said that the company’s move is prompted by the water situation in the area, as melted snow and rainfall flows into waterways in and around the mine. He said that the discharge is unavoidable, but deliberate.
15:35 December 21, 2015: This story was edited to clarify that the discharge of water started on Saturday, December 19, that the criminal investigation into Talvivaara’s suspected environmental crimes has not yet concluded, and to add Olli-Pekka Nissinen’s comment. An earlier version of this story referred to a ‘leak’–it has now been edited to clarify that Terrafame is deliberately discharging an extra 750 million litres of waste water, and it is not an uncontrolled leak.
