Jobs in the mining sector will be in prospect in Lapland, a part of Finland that can do with all the positive employment news that is available.
The Canadian mining concern First Quantum Minerals announced on Monday that it would be going ahead with a project to open up the Kevitsa mine near Sodankylä in Finnish Lapland.
Kevitsa is an open pit nickel-copper-PGE (platinum group element) mine, and the company expects to extract some five million tonnes of ore annually when the facility becomes operational in mid-2012.
Ore treatment will take place on the site, and the material could then be transported onward for further refining, perhaps to Harjavalta in Finland or to Sweden.
During the construction phase, which is scheduled to begin in the spring, an estimated 300-400 people will be employed, and when the plant is up and running the employment prospects are for 200 jobs.
The deposit near Sodankylä is believed to hold around 107 million tonnes of mineral reserves.
First Quantum Minerals have been drilling in the area since 2008, and the latest figures are a substantial increase on earlier estimates
