Metsä Fibre, part of Metsä Group, Finland, has launched an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure related to a bioproduct mill planned in Äänekoski, Finland. Earlier this week, the company provided the Central Finland ELY Centre (Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment) with an EIA program in accordance with the EIA Act. 

The EIA procedure will address the environmental impact of the bioproduct mill planned for the existing Metsä Group mill area in Äänekoski, and consistently taking the impact into account in planning and decision-making. The EIA procedure will not make any decisions concerning the project, but its goal is to provide information to support decision-making and to increase citizens' information supply and their opportunities to participate.

The bioproduct mill planned by Metsä Fibre will, if implemented, cost about EUR 1.1 billion, and it would be the forest industry's largest investment ever in Finland. The mill's pulp production capacity is 1.3 million metric tpy. The goal is to build the mill in the existing pulp mill area and it would replace the mill currently operating there. The final investment decision on the mill construction will be made in early 2015, which means that the bioproduct mill could be operational in 2017.