The French-owned company Areva Resources Finland Ltd has applied for a claim to mine uranium in the municipality of Ylitornio (and Rovaniemi) in south-western Lapland Province.
The company says there is a commercially-viable deposit of the ore in a 13-kilometre stretch of land called Rumavuoma. The area is near the border with the municipality of Rovaniemi, the regional capital.
Areva says that the area may also include copper, zinc, lead, silver and gold. These have been found in earlier studies by the Geological Survey of Finland.
The firm is applying for a license to carry out intensive field studies in the area for five years and to exploit any ore found there.
Partner in Finnish Nuclear Power Plants
The company is part of the Paris-based Areva Group, which has 61,000 employees worldwide.
Areva is one of the main partners building the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant on Finland's west coast with the Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO).
The construction project, which has been beset by technical and financial problems, is to be completed in 2009. The company is also involved in an overhaul project at the Loviisa nuclear power plant on the south coast.