Nordic Talc Oy plans to start mining and enrichment of talc ore in Saarikylä, Suomussalmi, and to convert the Suomussalmi soapstone factory into a talc production plant. Talc would be mined from the Haaponen deposit, which is located south of the currently producing Kivikangas deposit. Nordic Talc is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tulikivi Corporation.
The project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure was completed in the fall and the coordinating authority’s official statement on the project was received on 5 November 2024. Based on the environmental impact assessment, alternative 1 (VE1) of the EIA report has been selected as the basis for further planning, i.e. directing the area’s discharge waters towards Lake Kivijärvi. The local community also believes that this alternative is better than the alternative of directing the waters to Lake Saarijärvi.
As part of the project’s social impact monitoring, we will be organizing a resident and stakeholder survey to map the views of the area’s residents and other stakeholders on the project and its impacts. The survey will be conducted as an online survey and will be open for responses until 12th January 2025. The survey will be conducted only in Finnish and the link to the survey is here.
Nordic Talc Oy wants to continue a good dialogue with local residents, cottage owners and other stakeholders. It has been agreed that the monitoring group established in connection with the EIA will continue and we will organize, among other things, public events as the project progresses.
