The aim is to make the mine into a hospitable operating environment for businesses and an underground research facility.
In 2012, explosives contaminated with pyrite ore were sent from the Pyhäsalmi mine for destruction at the Forcit ammunition factory in Vihtavuori, where (after a year in storage) the container started to heat up and smoke.
The main level houses a cafeteria, washrooms, showers, workshops, storage facilities, as well as a safety area.
The same descent takes about 30 minutes by car or lorry, along the 11 km long decline access tunnel.
[17] Above ground facilities include the mill, hoisting towers, open blasting pit, waste pools, as well as workshops and warehouses.
Pyhäsalmi Mine can be recognized as a filming location for the new sci-fi television series White Wall, with a cast led by Aksel Hennie, Vera Vitali and Eero Milonoff when it premieres in 2020.
It is a Finnish-Swedish collaboration between Yle and SVT and is the most expensive Finnish television series made, with a 900 000 euro budget per episode.
Adding to the challenge was the environmental conditions, as the run was constant uphill, the temperature over 23 °C and humidity varying between levels of 50%-100%.
At the same time experience is gained from whether a mine heading toward closure could be transformed into a state of the art training center.
The approach of the program is holistic, providing attendees with training spanning the whole life cycle of a mine.
The program provides lectures as well as hands on learning opportunities and can be tailored to suit the participants previous experience.
The project leaders believe that through immersive training programs such as these, future mining operations can become more efficient and sustainable.
[26] The Pyhäsalmi mine will be the site of Finland's first underground fire-, rescue- and safety training center.
The main coordinator is Callio and the city of Pyhäjärvi with numerous professional partners and businesses, that specialize in fire extinction and safety systems, ICT solutions, and tunnel- and shaft rescue operations.
Callio Lab is a multidisciplinary R&D environment aiming to utilize better the unique infrastructure and facilities of the Pyhäsalmi Mine.
Callio Lab is a member of the BSUIN network, which consists of underground laboratories and facilities in the Baltic region.
LAGUNA is a proposed very large volume underground neutrino observatory, designed to study e.g., the excess of matter over antimatter in the universe.
Pyhäsalmi mine would have been at the optimal distance from the CERN particle accelerators, which would have provided the neutrino beams for the experiment.
[30] Plant Production in Mine was a project and study conducted by the Natural Resources Institute of Finland (LUKE) in Callio Lab laboratories at 660 meters underground.
If optimal growing conditions can be characterized, this would broach the possibility of year-round production of hops with hundreds of harvests instead of just one.
The purpose of this co-operation is to design and develop on a smaller scale a pilot facility which can later be implemented in a full-scale version.