Sotkamo Silver has launched the Tekes-project for which the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation has granted a development and piloting loan of 6.1 million (SEK 60,4 million). The investment size of the project is € 8.7 million (SEK 86,1 million ) including Tekes loan. According to the specific conditions of the development loan, the total funding needed is 20 MEUR.
With this project, Sotkamo Silver will introduce a production process and maintenance management based on a modern remote-control technology as one system in the production process by using Big Data, industrial intranet, and remote process control. This new knowledge will be utilized in all future mines in the Company. The goal of Sotkamo Silver is to be the leading Nordic “Junior Mining” company, utilizing the best available technology (BAT) and industrial internet in its production.
Tekes funding is given to Sotkamo Silver Oy, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. The interest rate for the loan is one percent under a base-rate, but not less than 1.0 %. The loan period is ten years, of which the first five years are grace period. Maximum 4,206,000 euro of the loan can be written off if the project does not show expected result. After the first drawdown of the loan, the drawdowns can be done stepwise according to the incurred costs.