Court blocks part of Google’s Kajaani data centre plan

Finland’s Northern Finland Administrative Court has temporarily barred implementation of part of a land-use plan covering Google’s proposed data centres in Kajaani, Yle reported.

The ban applies to part of the Otanmäki–Humpinsuo local master plan, which Kajaani has partly approved. The court’s decision covers land where Google plans eight large data centres and where mining company Otanmäki Mine has mining plans.

Otanmäki Mine appealed the plan and asked the court to suspend its implementation, arguing that bringing it into force would make the appeal ineffective. The company aims to seek a mining permit for the Otanmäki–Vuorokas area after completing studies, development work and technical and financial assessments related to exploiting the ore.

The Otanmäki and Vuorokas mines ceased operations in 1985. The city had already excluded a separate area, marked in yellow in an accompanying map, from implementation of the plan. The court will continue processing the appeal and decide on it later.