The Finnish government gave the green light on Thursday for state-owned Terrafame to extract and refine uranium in eastern Finland, paving the way for the country to become the European Union’s only uranium producer.
Terrafame is backed by commodities house Trafigura. It plans to produce uranium at a mine in the Kainuu region that has been producing nickel and other metals for batteries for years, and was previously known as Talvivaara.
Terrafame took over the mine in 2015 after environmental hurdles had led the mine to file for bankruptcy.