"The company plans to recover the uranium from its main leaching process by using a safe and technically simple solvent extraction process which is widely applied to metals recovery," it said in a statement.

It added the uranium recovered would make nuclear-energy producing Finland "almost self-sufficient with respect to uranium."

Talvivaara said it was investigating the modification of its production process "so that the uranium contained in the solution can be utilised as yellow cake," or milled uranium.

The uranium oxide generated would be packaged in airtight steel containers and transported abroad for further processing into nuclear fuel as there are currently no conversion or enrichment plants for uranium in Finland, Talvivaara said.

Uranium is found naturally in the bedrock and nickel ore at Talvivaara's mine in Sotkamo, some 600 kilometres (about 370 miles) north of Helsinki, and radiation levels of natural uranium would not be affected by the solvent extraction process, it said.

Finland is currently building its fifth nuclear reactor and considering boosting its nuclear power generation capacity further.

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.