Page 23 - Port of Kokkola Handbook & Directory

Keliber expects to create jobs for around 120 people in Kokkola- Kaustinen and, once in full operation, will provide additional jobs for approximately 300 people. The company estimates that minerals in the area will provide material for lithium production for between 10-20 years.Euro mining ‘traffic’ now amounts to around half of the port’s overall business. The port’s Kokkola-based business partner and Finland’s major dry-bulk transit forwarder and stevedore operator, Oy M. Rauanheimo Ab is responsible for the loading/unloading and onward transportation of imported mining materials. Rauanheimo has invested heavily in purchasing custom-made equipment to handle the shipments.Keliber will commence constructing the mine towards the end of 2018. Environmental and mining conditions are currently in preparation. The company expects to receive building permits early in 2018 and mining operations to start in 2019/20. Once operations are up and running, Kokkola will become Finland’s ‘lithium province’ and Europe’s powerhouse for lithium mining and production. Local Kokkola company, Ab Tallqvist Oy, one of the biggest private earthwork companies in Finland, has been retained to move 9,000 annual tons of lithium carbonate from the mine in 2019.Imports of large quantities of limestone, burnt lime, sulphur and lye – a raw material used in the production of nickel, zinc, fertilisers,21The port also works closely with other Finnish mining concerns including Pyhasalmi, Europe’s deepest metal mine located in Central Finland, extracting volcanogenic massive sulphide ore deposits from which copper and zinc are produced. The mine also yields large quantities of pyrite which is sold to clients in Europe and Asia for the production of sulphur dioxide used by the paper industry and the manufacture of sulphuric acid. lHANDBOOK & DIRECTORY PORT OF KOKKOLAMINING FOCuSThe Kokkola-Kaustinen mining area is just 20 km from the mining company’s lithium carbonate production plant in Kalavesi and a fast motorway links the two centres together.and chemicals – regularly pass through Kokkola before moving onwards by rail to Finland’s leading mineral mining clusters across the country. Mining and mineral products harvested from the mines, to be later refined into metal concentrates and pyrite, also travel through the port to international customers in Europe and Asia.©Keliber©Voskeuzz