Environmental Policy

Environmental impacts of mining activities are soil pollution and emissions in the air and water. Mining causes major physical interference with nature. The amount of residues is significant and often contain metals. The mining activities also consume significant amounts of energy.

Emissions in the air occur primarily as exhaust from diesel vehicles, diesel electrical aggregates and other equipment. Emissions in the water may be in the form of residual chemicals from water beneficiation, water that contains traces of explosives, soot, dust and waste oil leaking from the mine tunnels. Contamination of land may be in the form of waste oil and dust which contains metals.

Long-term environmental impacts of mining activity occur mainly due to sulfoxidation of tailings and waste rock heaps. Sulfoxidation can give rise to acid percolating water which contains metals.

Sotkamo Silver has an environmental policy designed to minimize impacts on air, water and land:

• Educate and involve all employees and subcontractors into environmental work of Sotkamo Silver
• Minimize use of energy and water
• Use technology that reduce the use of chemicals and raw materials
• Measure and monitore the impact on affected areas
• Reduce the noise of the operations by locating noise sources underground
• Follow the laws and regulations
• Strive for continuous improvement