Regional economic impacts of potential mines in Kanta-Häme

The aim of the project “Regional economic impacts of potential mines in Kanta-Häme” is to produce information on the regional economic impacts of potential mines that might in the future be established in the Kanta-Häme area. Stakeholders who will benefit from the results of the project include mining companies and SMEs in the area acting as their subcontractors, Kanta-Häme’s regional planners, municipal officials and elected officials, as well as local residents. The project will also support planning of the sustainable use of natural resources in Kanta-Häme. The most important impacts to assess are changes in the standard of living, employment, labour and capital income, consumption expences of the households, municipal tax revenues and the supply of public services. Positive development is based largeky on the boom of SMEs. The Kanta-Häme region (the geological Häme belt) is one of the most significant geological ore deposit zones in southern Finland. Large-scale mineral exploration and mineral potential mapping has been carried out in the area since the 1980s. The main actors have been the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), Outokumpu Oy, Rautaruukki Oy, Polar Mining, Dragon Mining and Nortec Minerals Corp. Amongst others, the gold and lithium deposits of the Somero- Tammela area are claimed by Tammela Minerals. GTK has carried out ore geological mapping throughout the Kanta-Häme region since 2003. In this study, the existing ore geological data will be processed into the form required for regional economic modelling.

The project consists of two components, 1) modelling and mineral resource assessment of ore types and targets in the area and 2) assessment of the economic impact of potential mines in the area. The three best potential ore type and the target areas in Kanta-Häme, according to present knowledge, have been selected as the research targets: the Tammela-Somera gold zone deposits, the Tammela-Somero lithium deposits and the Jokioinen-Tammela (Kedonojankulma-Liesjärvi) porphyry copper-gold ore system. The deposits selected as research targets for ore reserve assessment will be compared with nationally or regionally operating or starting up mines and their known ore deposits at different stages of the mining project. The regional economic impacts of potential mines extending over years will be calculated using a regional general equilibrium RegFinDyn simulation model developed by the Ruralia Institute of the University of Helsinki.

The end result will be a report containing a description and reserve assessment of ore deposits in the area, an assessment of the regional economic impact of the possible construction of mines for such deposits and, finally, a summary of the main results of the project. Above all, the information could benefit Kanta-Häme regional and municipal decision-makers as well as businesses in the area. New information on the ore potential of the area will increase investment in ore exploration and economic activity in the Kanta-Häme area even before mine construction.