SME – TMS Study Tour 2010 Report

Contents 2

Participants 4

Tour Program 5

Kiruna Mine 8

Kiruna Plant / Gruvberget 12

Aitik Mine 17

Caterpiller Pon 21

Aitik Plant 22

Svartliden Mine 25

Kristineberg Mine 29

Rönnskär Smelter 32

Metso 34

Atlas Copco 37

Zinkgruvan 40

Falun 45

Lovisagruvan 50

Sponsors 54

2

Each year the Resource Engineering Section of the Department of Applied Earth Sciences of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands organises an excursion for their students and staff members. The aim is to get a clear impression of the mining, extractive metallurgy and recycling industry in a particular country, its importance for Europe and the role it plays world-wide. The focus is always on the technological and economical aspects as well as on the cultural and geographical specialties of the country which is visited. This year Australia was chosen as the excursion target. The following report summarizes the information which was collected during the visit. Hans de Ruiter

3 Participants

Students Staff Matthijs Bootsma Hans de Ruiter Laura Both Peter Berkhout Evert Dolman Richard Hontelez Mathijs Hooisma Mathijs Mol Marjolein Nell Robert-Jan Pielkenrood Machiel van der Linde Rosa Verburg Jan-Douwe Wansink Thomas Waterman Elisabeth Wijermars

4 SME – TMS STUDENT CHAPTER DELFT Program Study Tour Sweden 2010

JULY

Fri, 2 morning Departure by plane from Amsterdam, via to Lulea SK 556 / SK 012 dept. A’dam 11:55 – arr. Lulea 16:30

afternoon 16:30 Arrival in lulea, pick up busses, drive to Kiruna 20.00 overnight in Kiruna LKAB guesthouse (with sauna) Sat, 3 2 days free, visit Ice Hotel & overnight in Kiruna Sun, 4

JULY morning Visit LKAB Kiruna Mon, 5 07.15 Breakfast 08.00 Visit the infomine and get equipment, Short presentations about LKAB and the ongoing projects Visit underground facilities (production loading, production drilling, main transport level, crushers and maintenance workshops. Lunch. afternoon Transport to to see the new Gruvberget open pit + visit to Svappavaara processing and pelletising plant. Back to Kiiruna. 17.00 Meal with LKAB, evening overnight in Kiruna Tue, 6 morning 07.00 Breakfast 10.00 Visit Boliden’s Aitik open pit (inc. Cat presentation) 12.30 Lunch afternoon 13.00 Visit Boliden’s Aitik, plant 16.00 travel to Skelleftea (350 km) evening 19.00 overnight camping Skelleftea (with sauna) Wed, 7 morning 06.30 Breakfast 07:00 Departure 09.00 Visit Svartliden goldmine afternoon 13.00 Visit CIP plant return to Skelleftea evening 22.00 overnight in Skelleftea overnight in Skelleftea Thu, 8 07.30 Travel to Boliden (35 km) 08.00 Visit engineering department, Boliden office 10.00 Lunch in Malå., drive to Kristineberg afternoon 12.00 Arrive in Kristineberg, mine visit 18.00 Return to Skelleftea evening 20.00 overnight in Skelleftea overnight in Skelleftea Fri, 9 morning 08.00 Travel to Rönnskär

5 08.30 Arrival at Rönnskär, "Koppargården" Company presentation (Magnus Ek) Plant visit (copper production, recycling operations) 11.00 Presentation of the Rönnskär recycling operations 12.00 Lunch at the company cantina 12.30 Departure afternoon 14.30 Travel to Lulea (130 km) evening 18.00 overnight in Lulea hostel Meet scouts, discuss plans for weekend Sat, 10 09.00 Shopping 11.00 Ferry to Småskär (20km) The Luleå Scout hut with sauna and beach on Småskär. A few canoes are available. The Island is 3 * 1 km No electricity Sun, 16.00 Ferry to Lulea 11 18.00 Travel to airport 20.20 Travel by plane to Stockholm SK 015 22.05 Arrive Stockholm (ARN) 22.30 Pick up busses and drive to Orebro (200 km), 00.30 overnight in Orebro

6 Mon, 12 morning 08.00 Travel to Orebro (90 km) 09.00 Visit Atlas Copco Atlas Copco presentation afternoon Atlas Copco presentation evening Dinner and drinks Atlas Copco 17.00 overnight in Orebro Tue, 13 morning 07.00 Travel to Zinkgruvan (50 km) 08.00 Arrive in Zinkgruvan, mine visit 12.00 End mine visit afternoon 12.30 Mill visit 15.30 Departure to Norberg evening 17.00 overnight in Norberg (with beach) Wed, morning Visit Metso in Sala 14 afternoon 14.00 Departure 16.00 Travel to Norberg evening 17.00 overnight in Norberg

Thu, 15 morning 09.00 Visit Falun + historical Bergslagen area afternoon Visit Falun + historical Bergslagen area evening 18.00 overnight in Norberg Fri, 16 morning 07.00 Depart for Lovisagruvan 09.00 Visit to Lovisagruvan mine afternoon 13.00 Drive to Stockholm (200km) 16.00 Arrive Stockholm hostel evening 20.00 Farwell dinner overnight in Stockholm Sat, 17 day Free 20.00 Farwell dinner overnight in Stockholm Sun, 18 afternoon 14.30 Depart from hostel 17:25 Flight SK 557 to Amsterdam (arr.:19:30)

7 Kiruna mine

Quick Facts Ownership: LKAB Product: Ore Location: Kiruna, Northern Sweden Current production rate: 15Mt/year (2006) Reserves: 674Mt (proven&probable, 2009) Start of production: 1890 (open pit), 1960s (underground) Mining method: Automated sub-level Caving Employees: 1.800

Overview The LKAB mine started production at the beginning of the 20th century. Originating as an Open Pit operation nowadays is mined through a sublevel caving. The mine is known for its high level of automation. Many of the underground processes are remote-controlled. For example the production drilling rigs and loaders as well as the underground rail transport system. The mainly ore is loaded onto trains, hauled to a central crushing plant, and then hoisted to the surface for further processing on site.

Ownership LKAB is wholly owned by the Swedish state and a public limited company (It’s permitted to offer its shares to the public).

Location The LKAB Kiruna operation is located in Kiruna in the north of Sweden (145 km north of the Arctic Circle). The city situated at an altitude of about 530m. The city of Kiruna/mine is connected to a railway system between Lulea and the ice-free harbor of (Norway).

Mining Kiruna mine consists of 8 production areas which have their own ore passes and ventilation shafts. Ventilation shafts were constructed by SIAB using Indau 500 raise borers. The ore passes (32) which connect the current main production level(775m) with the main haulage level at 1045m were constructed by Skanska Raise Drilling. The iron ore is mined by the use of sublevel caving. The levels are spaced at 28.5m vertically. Every blasts yields around 8.500tons of rock. Blasting is carried out by LKAB Kirmit AB. Remote controlled drilling and ore handling equipment supplied by Atlas Copco an Tamrock is widely used for

8 production. After blasting, LHD (some remotely operated) transport the run-of-mine to the nearest ore pass. The main haulage level at Kiruna lies at a depth of 1,045m, with the mine's ore-handling systems capable of handling 26Mt/y of run-of-mine rock. Seven 500t-capacity shuttle trains, controlled from the 775m level, collect ore from ten groups of ore passes and deliver it to one of four crushing stations. Ore is crushed to a size less than 100mm and is then transported to the surface by the use of a skip hoist system. First the ore is transported to the 775m level and then with a second skip hoist system to the surface.

Geology The Kiruna orebody is 4000m long, 80-120m thick and reaches a depth of about 2000m. It was formed approximately 1.600Ma ago as a result of intense volcanic activity. Iron-rich solutions precipitated on to a syenite porphyry footwall. The ore layer was then covered by other volcanic deposits and sedimentary rocks. Later the whole orebody was tilted to its current dip of 5 -6 . The iron ore at Kiruna mine consists of a very pure magnetite-apatite mixture with more than 60% iron and an average of 0.9% .

9 Reserves The original ore reserve was about 1.800Mt. The latest estimate by LKAB in 2009 shows a current proven reserve of 598Mt at a grade of 48.6% iron and a probable reserve of 76Mt at a grade of 46.4%. Measured, indicated and inferred mineral resources respectively add another 94, 153 and 82Mt of ore and exploration still continues to identify further resources.

Growth Prospects The present main haulage level of the kiruna mine is at 1,045 meters. This is the sixth level since the mine changed from open pit in an underground mine. Because the production increased the last couple of years there is a higher rate of vertical mining than expected. At the moment construction of the next main level is in progress. This new level on 1365 meter should be operational in 2013 if the expected development time of 5 years is achieved. As the depth increases, safety becomes a bigger issue. Seismic activity increases with depth and LKAB is therefore continuing research on further automation of the mining process for safety reasons. Also ventilation becomes more complex since air is transported into the mine by ventilation shafts but now has to travel over a longer horizontal distance. Based on a yearly production of approximately 19Mt of finished products, the operating life of the Kiruna mine will be increased by more than 20 years to 2030. Furthermore, exploration for new orebodies is(successfully) carried out in the near area.

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11 LKAB Gruvberget open-pit

Quick Facts: Ownership: LKAB Product: Iron ore and industrial minerals Location: Svappavaara Current production rate: the aim is 2 million mt of crude ore per year Reserves: more then 8 years Start of production: 2010 Mining method: Open-pit Processing technology: Pelletising plant Employees: 30-40

Overview: The company LKAB, Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag, originally started in 1696. In 1964 the Svappavaara mine is opened and production begins at Kiruna’s first pelletizing plant. The Gruvberget mine is a new mine, which is just opened.

Ownership: LKAB ( Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag) is a Swedish mining company. The company is mining iron ore in mines at Kiruna and at Malmberget in northern Sweden. The company was established in 1890, and it is 100% state-owned since the 195 ’s. The iron ore is processed to pellets and fines, and are transported by train (Malmbanan) to the harbours at Narvik and Luleå and to the steelmill at Luleå (SSAB).

Location: The Gruvberget mine is located at the Svappavaara field, near Kiruna. It about 300 km north of Lulea.

Growth prospects: During the first half of 2010, LKAB had planned to open an open-pit mine at Gruvberget, near Svappavaara, sixty kilometers southeast of Kiruna. A maximum of two million tonnes of iron ore per year will be mined. A ruling will be made by the Environmental Court in March, soon after which LKAB hopes to start production. Also two other mines will be opened, so that the three new mines will increase LKAB's capacity. It is aimed to be able to deliver 37 million tonnes of finished products per year. LKAB has expanded its capacity at surface level over the past five years. With two new pelletizing plants and an upgraded logistics structure, access to crude ore is the bottleneck in the chain of production. More iron ore is needed, because of the grow in demand. The three deposits together contain about 300 Mt of iron ore, with an iron content of between 40 and 55 percent. The deposits will be mined via open pits and the production structure will be flexible.

12 Mineral Resources:

Figure 1: Svappavaara iron ore

Mining and Equipent: The aim is to extract the ore by drilling & blasting, followed by loading by loaders and hauling and dumping by trucks. Now they are already doing that, but on a small scale because the surface has to be flattened first. At the moment they are working with 4 rigs. The holes have a depth of 15 m, and are blasted with ANFO. Everything is done by contractors, expect for the drilling.

13 LKAB Gruvberget Svappavaara processing and pelletising plant

Quick Facts: Ownership: LKAB Product: Iron pellets Location: Svappavaara Current production rate: 2.5 Million t/y of iron ore pellets Reserves: Start of production: in the 196 ’s Processing technology: Blast Furnace, Pyrometallurgy, Pelletizing Employees:

Overview: The company LKAB, Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag, originally started in 1696. In 1964 the Svappavaara mine is opened and production begins at Kiruna’s first pelletizing plant. The Gruvberget mine is a new mine, which is just opened. The plant uses mostly magnetite as material for the pellets. Also the plant contains a research and testing Blast Furnace. During the 80s and 90s LKAB developed a strategy to focus on iron ore pellet production that resulted in reopening the Svappavaara pelletizing plant and building a new pelletizing plant in Kiruna. The product development of iron ore pellets was intensified as new drivers for blast furnace operation started to evolve. Among these were the increasing amounts of pulverised coal, oxygen enrichment and recycling.The result was increased productivity in the blast furnace that put higher demands on quality of ironore products. The possibilities to use full scale trials at customer as a tool was limited by the potential high risks involved and because these trials often are non-conclusive. There was also the fact that laboratory testing is not sufficient to predict blast furnace process behaviour. The target for the design and construction of the EBF was to create a small blast furnace where the burden was subjected to conditions similar enough to full scale furnaces to obtain realistic testing. At the same time to improve knowledge to increase the understanding of LKAB’s customers’ process. Within the first few campaigns it became clear that the EBF was a very valuable tool not only for development of pellets but for other research and development of the blast furnace process.

Ownership: LKAB ( Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag) is a Swedish mining company. The company is mining iron ore in mines at Kiruna and at Malmberget in northern Sweden. The company was established in 1890, and it is 100% state-owned since the 195 ’s. The iron ore is processed to pellets and fines, and are transported by train (Malmbanan) to the harbours at Narvik and Luleå and to the steelmill at Luleå (SSAB).

Location: The Svappavaara Plant is located at the Svappavaara field, near Kiruna. It about 300 km north of Lulea.

14 Processing:

A schematic flow sheet of the LKAB pelletizing plant in Svappavaara is shown in above. The finely ground magnetite iron ore concentrate is mixed with 3.5 wt.% olivine additive and filtered to around 9% humidity. The humid pellet feed is mixed with the bentonite binder and balled to green pellets of an average size of around 12 mm. The green pellets are heat-treated in the grate-kiln pelletizing process. First, the green pellets are oxidised in a static bed in the grate, at gas temperatures around 1000 to 1120 °C. Then, the pellets are loaded to the kiln where final sintering takes place at about 1250 °C. The pellets are cooled in the rotary cooler. To avoid rest oxidation in the cooler, the pellet oxidation degree after the grate should be as high as possible. This is favourable for other reasons as well.

Products: LKAB is very proud to produce ‘green pellets’. With this term, they mean that they use a low amount of energy to make the pellets. One of the reasons, is that the main mineral they use is magnetite, which needs less energy during pelletising. The pellets have been produced for about 50 years, so LKAB has lots of knowledge and experience in making pellets. The main customers are European steel factories, were the pellets with help of some other materials are converted to steel in BOF’s.

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16 Aitik

Quick Facts: Ownership: Boliden Product: Zinc/copper Location: Gällivare, Sweden Current production rate: 18 Mt ore per year Reserves: 430 Mt proven Start of production: 196 ’s Mining method: Open-pit Employees: 58

Overview: Aitik is an open pit copper mine and mill near the town of Gällivare, Sweden. This is Lappland, north of the Artic Circle. The mine employs 400people. The deposit was discovered in the 1930s and began production in 1968. The mine is planned to be in operation at least until 2016. Annual production is 18 Mtonnes of ore and 20.4 Mtonnes of rock. To the end of 2004 Aitik has produced more than 400 millions of ore. As of 2005 there are 220 million tonnes of proven reserves and 12 million tonnes of probable ore reserves.

Ownership: Aitik is 100% owned by Boliden AB. New Boliden is a Swedish mining and smelting company focusing on production of copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver. Following a series of acquisitions during the 1980s and 1990s the company acquired mining and smelting assets of the Finnish mining and smelting company Outokumpu in 2003. Outokumpu acquired the subsidiary Boliden Contech and Boliden's copper and zinc divisions. As a consequence of the deal, Outokumpu ended up controlling 49 percent of the Boliden shares.

Location: Aitik is an open pit copper mine and mill near the town of Gällivare, Sweden. This is Lappland, north of the Artic Circle. Metal concentrate from Aitik is transported by train to the Ronnskar smelter in Skelleftehamn.

Mining & Equipment: As an open pit, the mine undergoes drilling, blasting, and haulage of materials via truck. The southern section of the Aitik Mine has reached 820 feet (250 m) and the northern part is 1,312 feet (400 m). The pit was extended from 1989 to '91, when the company Roxon built an in-pit crushing station and a concentrator connected to a conveyor within the mine. The stripping ratio for the mine by 2004 was 1:1—1.8 metric tons per month.

The extraction process begins with drilling 12-inch (311-mm) holes with rotary rigs. This step precedes ‘Nonal’ blasting

17 which takes place to counter the numerous thunderstorms that Aitik is prone to. Electric and diesel shovels were used to strip away the materials for extraction but after 1989, Boliden began using hydraulic power to accomplish this task with two Demag H485 hydraulic shovels. The materials were removed by Caterpillar trucks, models 789, 789B, and 797. Aitik also utilizes other equipment for extraction and mining purposes, such as electric rope shovels, down-the-hole drills, and rotary drills, as well as a variety of equipment that was left over after the Los Frailes Mine in Spain was shut down. After the ground surface is stripped away and copper is extracted, the ore is processed. Boliden employs a special technique in their ore processing which involves ball mill grinding and flotation. Once the materials are pressure-filtered, they are brought to Boliden’s smelter plant. Crushed aggregate waste is shipped by rail to Gallivare.

Mine design: The main pit is designed with a bench height of 15 meters, slope angles are nearly vertical because of the high rock strength. At moment the pit is 415 meters deep and after completion the depth will be 600 meters. The current ramp is 4km long. Roughly the pit is 1,2 km long and 400 km wide. The extension of the pit dimensions after Aitik 36 will be 100 meters around. A small satellite pit is created next to the new processing plant.

Geology: The orebody is hosted by a basin of volcanic rocks surrounded by granitic intrusions, within a supracrustal metamorphosed shear zone of precambrian age. Biotite schists in the volcanic sequence contain disseminated chalcopyritic mineralisation averaging less than 0.40% copper plus gold and silver values.

Mineral Resources: Mining started on the basis of a 50Mt reserve, but by 1998 Aitik had yielded 300Mt of ore. As of November 2006, total proven reserves were 520Mt grading 0.31% copper, 0.2g/t gold and 2.0g/t silver, while 110Mt of probable reserves have similar precious metals grades and 0.28% copper. Measured resources at January 2006 were 635Mt grading 0.30% copper, 0.2g/t gold and 2g/t silver. Indicated plus inferred resources totalled 350Mt at similar grades.

18 Operating Performance: A new concentrator to be built as part of the expansion will see capacity doubled to 36Mt. All environmental permits have granted and operations at Aitik 36 will commence this year (2010). There is a four-year construction period, which Boliden says will achieve 33Mt annual capacity, ramping up to 36Mt between 2011 and 2014. Enhancing the economics of Aitik 36, the new concentrator will include a molybdenum recovery circuit, providing Boliden with a new metal revenue source. Additionally, much of the stockpiled waste rock may become a commercial product in the future to be used in the construction of roads and as aggregate ballast. Attention is also focusing on producing products more suited to the construction industry from the waste rock mined in the future.

Growth prospects: The construction of tomorrow’s Aitik – a project that will double production to 36 million tonnes – is one of the biggest industrial projects in Sweden right now, and the biggest investment ever made by the Boliden Group. Aitik is becoming technologically more advanced and the operations are also becoming more eco-friendly. New infrastructure is being built, at the same time as the mine is adapting its machine requirements to handle the new production volume, which will total 72 million tonnes of rock (equal quantities of waste rock and ore).  The mine is investing in new, more efficient drilling machines.  The plans for tomorrow’s Aitik include trucks with even higher load weights.  A new railway spur (with reindeer footbridge) is being built from the Aitik area to the existing Malmbanan railway.  New crushers, conveyors and concentrator

19 20 Pon Caterpillar

Quick Facts: Ownership: Caterpiller Inc. Location: Aitik, Sweden Product/service: Caterpillar equipment dealer

Overview: Caterpillar designs, manufactures, markets and sells machinery and engines and sells financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines. Caterpillar Pon is the dealer of Caterpillar equipment in Europe. Pon Equipment represents Caterpillar in earth-moving equipment, primarily in the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Ownership: Pon Caterpillar is part of Caterpillar Inc. With more than USD $67 billion in assets, Caterpillar was ranked number one in its industry and number 44 overall in the 2009 Fortune 500. Caterpillar stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Location: One of the Caterpillar Pon workshops is located at Bolidens Aitik mine in Aitik, Sweden. Pon provides a service to the mine of Boliden by using the Caterpillar experts on the mine site. The Pon Caterpillar workshop is part of Bolidens Aitik 36 expansion program.

Equipment: In the workshop where Caterpillar 793D dump trucks, CAT M16 graders, CAT 993 wheelloader and several other smaller trucks, like watertrucks etc. All the trucks get new tires and maintenance at the workshop. There’s also a very large washing street and tire store. All the maintenance is done inside the workshop because of the long winterperiod.

Caterpillar Minestar system: Caterpillar Minestar system is used in Aitik’s pit to improve loading and hauling. It’s a GPS truck assignment program. Every truck is equipped with GPS and connected with the Minestar system. At the loader the sytems knows what different material is loaded in the bucket. When the bucket is dumped in the mine truck, Minestar knows what is loaded in the truck and sends a message to the truck where to go. Dumping waste of dumping the ore at the primary crusher. So the system assigns the truck and the number of trucks to loaders and to crushers or (stock)piles. This system is also able to estimate the time of arrival and the weight of the load. Minestar will provide a more efficient short term planning and will help with a more sustainable mining with less fuel consumption.

21 Aitik Plant

Quick Facts Company Name: Boliden Mineral AB Aitik Ore milled: 17.8 Mt/y Copper concentrate production: 173.000 t/y Process techniques: Milling and floatation

Overview Aitik open pit mine produces low grade copper ore since 1968, this ore also contains precious metals like silver and gold. Per year 17.8 Mt of ore are extracted together with 23.5 Mt of waste rock per year. The mine is equipped with an in-pit crushing station.

Ore Processing The crushed copper ore comes into the plant where autogenous and ball milling is followed by conventional floatation. The design of this system is typical for the Boliden company. The whole plant is managed by an ABB distributed process control system, optimised using Svedala CISA software. The 173.000 t/y of copper concentrate contains 47.225 tonnes of copper, 32.000 kg´s of silver and 1,200 kg of gold. Pressure filtered concentrate is transported in purpose-designed containers to Boliden's Ronnskär smelter at Skelleftehamn on the Baltic coast. A new rail link from the mining area to the main line may be used to ship out crushed mine waste rock for aggregates.

Facilities old plant: The ore is crushed by 2 in-pit gyratory crushers to a size of 200 mm and is further crushed by 1 surface crusher. The crushed copper ore comes into the plant where autogenous and ball milling is followed by conventional flotation. The design of this system is typical for the Boliden company. The whole plant is managed by an ABB distributed process control system, optimised using Svedala CISA software. The 173.000 t/y of copper concentrate contains 47.225 tonnes of copper, 32.000 kg´s of silver and 1,200 kg of gold. Pressure filtered concentrate is transported in purpose-designed containers to Boliden's Rönnskär smelter at Skelleftehamn on the Baltic coast. A new rail link from the mining area to the main line may be used to ship out crushed mine waste rock for aggregates. The old plant will close in August 2010. Boliden is trying to sell all the equipment.

Facilities Aitik 36 plant: Aitik 36 is the name of the plan to double the production of the Aitik mine from almost 18 to 36 Mt of ore per year. To achieve this, the pit needs to have a push back, in the direction of the old plant. Instead of moving the plant, Boliden has chosen to build a total new plant which is capable of processing the

22 double of ore. The plant will be placed 3 km away from the mine. The ore will overcome this distance by conveyor belt. The plant will operate 2 parallel circuits consisting of milling, classifying, flotation, regrinding and dewatering to get a copper concentrate containing 25-27% of copper. The recovery of the new plant is 93% which is 3% higher than the old plant, resulting in an extra profit of 75,000,000 SEK per year. The plant was designed in 3 to 4 months. At the moment it employs 110 people, this will be brought back to 88 due to automation. Half of these employees are women. In the plant there are 94 camera’s to observe the process in the control room. There is a storage facility to store 300,000 tons of ore, which is equal to 24-36 hours of processing in case the mine production is down. At the moment the plant processes 2400 tons per hour, but the goal is to upscale this to 3500 t/hr. All the water used in the new plant is recycled, so there is a closed water system.

Milling equipment: Every circuit has two autogenous mills which mill 2400 tons of ore per hour. The primary mill is of a new type with a wrap around motor which delivers a power of 22.5 MW. The secondary mill is also autogenous, but still uses conventional motors which also deliver 22.5 MW. At the moment the milling capacity is 700 to 900 tons per hour. The mills are filled from 35% up to 50%. After milling through these 2 mills the material goes through the classifier. Parts that are too big to for flotation continue in the process as circulating load. Parts that are small enough continue to the floatation tanks. Pebbles with a diameter of 30 mm are removed from the secondary mill and are used in the regrinding mill as grinding medium (because steel balls are too expensive). This mill grinds the material from the last flotation cell (called the scavenger). This material has to be milled again because the copper parts from this cell are still stuck to relatively large pieces of rock. Without milling this material again, the copper grade in the end product would become lower. The material from the regrinding mill returns to the flotation process again.

Flotation: After milling the ore is transported to the flotation cells. Per circuit there are 13 cells, each of a volume of 160 m3. After these cells the copper concentration of the slurry is 25 to 27%.

Final steps: After flotation the concentrate is brought to a thickener with a diameter of 22 meters. After this the concentrate is transported to a dewatering installation where pressure filters are used. The final concentrate is now ready for transport by trucks and trains to the smelter.

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24 Svartliden gold mine

Company name: Dragon mining Product: 80% gold, 10-19% silver ingots for further smelting Mine type: Open pit Ore type: meta volcanic intrusions

Mine outline and operation: The Svartliden open pit is located at Pauträsk, about 8 km from asphalt paved road. The site consists of a main office, processing plant, semi-mobile crusher, tailings pond and the open pit. The pit measures 1200m length, 140m width and 60m depth. The ore is salvaged by blasting 40x40x5 meter blocks after drilling a pattern with 89mm/3,5” drills. Around 5 tonnes of bedrock is mined per week, with a waste rock to ore ratio of about 5,5:1. The host sequence is extremely hard so the drill bits wear down very quick. After the blasting 3 mine technicians inform the shoveldriver about what is ore and what isn’t. To prevent dilution the blasted rock is scooped up with a small bucket (6 or 7 scoops per truck) and first the top half is salvaged, then the bottom half. The ore and the waste is separately loaded into caterpillar 775D or 773B dumptrucks, which carry the ore to one of two stockpiles, from where ore will be crushed by a semi-mobile jaw-crusher, while waste is dumped on other piles.

Svartliden ore is processed through a conventional comminution and leach (CIL) plant, with the design capacity of 300 000 tonnes per annum, which operates continuously. Svartliden has produced 220 270 ounces of gold in total as at 31 March 2010.

Figure 2. The excavators at Svartliden gold mine.

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Figure 3. Blasted rock diagram (side view). Rock in brown, blasted rock in gray, ore in yellow, blue for digging chevrons, red for total excavation volume. As can be seen, the bigger 5 meter deep chevron gives more dilution of the ore. The second method to the right costs more effort and money at first but pays of easily on the long run because of the increased recovery, the price of gold admits the use of this method.

The Process: The production process is shown in figure 2, A brief summary points out the most important steps during the process. First the ore passes through a 3-step crushing plant. After crushing an autogenous mill grinds the ore further to liberate the gold ore, after grinding cyanide leaching takes place. Approximately 5 grams of gold are extracted per ton of ore. The processing plant contains 5 leaching tanks, which use around 20 tons of active coal in the circuit. The gold enters the leaching tanks on the one side, while the active coal enters on the other side. This way the last tank in the series contains the most active coal and the least gold, so the last grams can be leached from the mixture. The active coal and cyanide mixture is then put in the cleaning tank where more cyanide and soda is added to scrape the gold from the coal. The concentrate is tapped and via elektrolysis in a small tank the gold is won out of the liquid. Since the output is not that large the electrolysis tank measures around 2x0.8x0.8 meters and only a few stainless steel wool screens are placed in the basin. The cyanide then goes through a detox tank where hydrogen peroxide is added to neutralize the toxin, after that the mixture is ready for the tailings. After smelting the gold concentrate is heated in a small oven, in which the temperature is around 2000 ºC, then the liquid gold is casted in bars. Casting usually takes every two weeks, the bars can weigh up to 20 kilos each. Besides gold the bars contain silver as well (up to 20%). All residual products from the mining operations (waste rock and concentrating sand) are deposited within the mine site. The tailings lake is positioned south of the mine to prevent poisening of the river that flows to the north of the mine site. Environmental measurements occur often, especially during the summer months. On several places in and around the concession and the river, the riverwater and groundwater is measured on water flow, heavy metals, pH and sedimentation.

26 Mine Future: Currently the mine is planning to go underground at the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012. The ore body is nearly vertical and has an average thickness of around 8 meters, with a minimum of 4 meters. Their mining method will be an open stope, without backfill. As with the digging, a more pricy method of excavating is going to be used. The stopes, 8 meter by standard, are blasted twice if the orebody is thinner than 8 meters to minimize dilution. A preliminary underground mine design and internal study has been completed. The study confirms the potential to mine and process 312,000 tonnes at a head grade of 7,1 g/t resulting in 71,400 ounces of recovered gold.

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28 Kristineberg Mine

Quick Facts: Ownership: Boliden Product: polymetallic ore with zinc, copper, lead, gold and silver. Location: Kristineberg, Sweden Current production rate: 561,000 t/year Proven Reserves: 1690 kton with Au 1,3g/t, Ag 25g/t, Cu 1,4%, Zn 2,2% and Pb 0,1% Probable Reserves: 1500 kton with Au 0,6g/t, Ag 48g/t, Cu 0,5%, Zn 7,5% and Pb 0,4% Start of production: 1940 Mining method: Cut and Fill Employees: approximately 180 and 30 contractors

Overview: Kristineberg is one of the deepest mines in Sweden, with operations below the 1,250 m level. The mine came into operation in 1940 and is the oldest mine operating in the Boliden Area. The mine consists of polymetallic ore containing zinc, copper, lead, gold and silver, as well as copper ore and gold ore. Around 80% of the ore mined at Kristineberg is extracted using the cut-and-fill method. The mined out sections are mostly backfilled with tailings sand from the concentrator. In wider sections, cement is added to stabilise the sand. Successful exploration programmes have discovered new mineralisations at depths of 800 – 1,300 m some 500 m north of the ores currently mined. In 2007, the Kristineberg mine produced a total of 580,000 tonnes of ore. The mine employs approximately 180 people and around 30 contractors, making Boliden the largest private employer in the area.

Ownership: The Kristinaberg mine is owned by New Boliden which is a Swedish mining and smelting company focusing on production of copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver. Following a series of acquisitions during the 1980s and 1990s the company acquired mining and smelting assets of the Finnish mining and smelting company Outokumpu in 2003. Outokumpu acquired the subsidiary Boliden Contech and Boliden's copper and zinc divisions. As a consequence of the deal, Outokumpu ended up controlling 49 percent of the Boliden shares.

Mining Cut-and-fill is the primary mining method. The ore body is developed with a series of crosscuts driven form a footwall ramp. From the crosscuts, stopes are mined in 5m high slices by breasting using drill jumbos and load-haul- dump (LHD) machines. After a stope has been mined out , development rock is placed in the stope to the extent it is available, followed by backfilling of the remaining volume with hydraulic tailings, when the ore body is more than 8m wide, a drift-and-fill method is used. Mining is currently taking place down to 1250m. In general, several stopes are mined simultaneously at different levels. The interval between levels that was in use at the start of the research program varied between 80 and 100m, but has been reduced to 50m since then.

29 Geology: The ore zone is a typical vein structure that strikes east-west with dip varying between 45 and 80 degrees. The host rock is a schistose sericitic quartzite. The rocks immediately adjacent to the ore body are highly altered, often to very weak rock. Talcy sericitic schists that vary in thickness between 0 and 3m. Near the footwall plunge of the ore body, the footwall constists of chloritic schists, which often are heavily disturbed tectonically. The contacts between the ore body and the alteration zone are commonly planar, low-friction coatings. In the footwall contact, clay infillings up to 5cm thick are often present. The hanging wall contact often consists of chlorite interlayered with pyrite with a thickness of up to 0,5m. The ore bodies themselves consists of pyrite mixed with chalcopyrite and galena. The rock strength of both wall rocks and ore decreases from the hanging wall plunge toward the footwall plunge as a result of the greater geologic disturbance caused by folding and faulting. This disturbance has produced inclusions of chloritic schists and mylonite within the ore body that trend subparallel to dip.

Growth prospects: Despite the area having been explored for more than 70 years, deposits continue to be identified. The company continues to allocated funding for exploration here, aiming to define sufficient reserves for mining until beyond 2015. This on-going effort has most recently located a high-grade zinc-silver zone and copper-gold-zinc mineralisation at Kristineberg.

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31 Rönnskär smelter

Quick Facts Ownership: boliden Product: Copper smelter (75% ore, 25% racycling) Location: Skelleftehamn, northern Sweden Current production rate: Copper 250,000 tonnes Lead 30,000 tonnes Gold 15,000 kgs Silver 500,000 kgs Zinc clinker 40,000 tonnes Sulphuric acid 600,000 tonnes Liquid sulphur dioxide 50,000 tonnes Start of production: 1930 Employees: 840 employees (100 women)

Overview Today, Rönnskär is one of the world’s most efficient copper smelters and largest facilities for the recycling of copper and precious metals, like gold and silver. Metals and chemicals are extracted from mined concentrates (75 %) and various recycling materials (25 %).

The main products are copper, lead, gold, silver and zinc clinker. Rönnskär has approximately 840 employees, of which 100 are women. The recycling materials are mainly metal residues from brass foundries and steel mills, and various kinds of metal scrap such as shredded electronic scrap from computers and mobile phones. Approximately 20 % of copper production derive from recycling, as do 55 % of gold production and 75 % of zinc production. Plans to increase Rönnskär’s electronic scrap recycling capacity have been drawn up.

Ownership New Boliden is a Swedish mining and smelting company focusing on production of copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver. Following a series of acquisitions during the 1980s and 1990s the company acquired mining and smelting assets of the Finnish mining and smelting company Outokumpu in 2003. Outokumpu acquired the subsidiary Boliden Contech and Boliden's copper and zinc divisions. As a consequence of the deal, Outokumpu ended up controlling 49 percent of the Boliden shares.

Production process of primary flow After the concentrates are shipped to the facility they are first blended to get a constant feed for the flash furnace. In the flash furnace the copper concentrate is upgraded from 28% to 62 % Cu matte. No fuel is added to the flash furnace because of the high sulfur contend which reacts with the added oxygen. For a good production the capacity of the flash furnace is related to the converting

32 process. The capacity of the flash furnace is 50-80tonper hour. The slag from the flash furnace goes to the electric furnace together with recycled input of process. After this step the Cu matte is transported in ladles to the copper converter. The capacity of the converter is 900 ton/day. After filling the Cu grade will be increased from 62% to 98%. Before this can be tapped there is some slag pouring from the converter. The control of this process is partly analyzing of the off gasses and color of the flames and expertise of the controller. Samples are checked on the concentration of sulfur before pouring the matte. The ratio between slag and matter is 2:1 and the slag is returned to the electric furnace. The concentrated matte is transported to the continuous casting process. Here the Cu anodes plates are being produced. After quality checking these will be electro refined in the big electro refining plant. The Cu plates will slowly dissolve in the electrolytic cell and hereby at the cathode there will be a deposit of Cu concentrate which is sold to the costumer. The main costumer is a copper wire manufacture in the south of Sweden. The Rönnskär smelter is special for the presence of the KALDO furnace where they handle E-scrap to be transferred to the converter. The KALDO is relatively small, 11m3 and is operated 240 days per year. It will produce 35 ton/day of concentrate.

Growth Prospects In order to retain its position in relation to the competition in the long term, Rönnskär is focusing on ensuring the operational availability of the facilities. They are trying to cut production cost, and improve productivity. There are plans to increase productivity on scrap handling. Several projects are currently being run with a view to creating better order and tidiness in the work place, continuous improvements in the day-to-day work routines and fewer unplanned maintenance activities. At the end of 2011 there will be a new recycling plant operational. This will be a KALDO furnace This is for the long term vision that the influence of scrap will increase.

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Metso Sala

Quick Facts: Ownership: Metso Product: Pumps Location: Sala, Sweden Employees: >150 in Sala

Overview Metso is a global supplier of sustainable technology and services for mining, construction, power generation, automation, recycling and the pulp and paper industries. We have about 27,000 employees in more than 50 countries. In Sala Metso nowadays produces mainly pumps. In this factory 3 pump types are produced: flotation pumps, pressure filter pumps and tailings pumps. Metso also provides the possibility to companies to install complete systems. Complete systems like we have seen in Boliden Aitik. Metso is able to deliver systems from crushing to grinding to wet processing to thermal processing, Metso has the capability and expertise to support complete projects.

Equipment and systems: VPA The Vertical Pressure Filter is a heavy duty machine, developed for filtration of metallic minerals, industrial minerals, coal and tailings. The filter has simple mechanical construction and design, with few moving parts. By using a pulling hydraulic cylinder system for closing and sealing the filter plate pack, there can be provided a compact layout and a light weight support frame design. Polypropylene filter plates are used for good chemical resistance and the light weight.

LIMS - dry and wet low intensity magnetic separators Metso (Sala) AB (as Sala Maskinfabrik AB, later Sala International AB) has a long tradition in magnetic separation. Already in the end of the 19th century "Sala" built the first magnetic separators. Low intensity magnetic separators, LIMS, are designed to recover ferromagnetic materials. The separators are available in designs and sizes to provide solutions for all applications. The heart of each separator is the magnetic system with its unique design, which has a proven record of highest efficiency.

HGMS - high gradient magnetic separators High gradient magnetic separators available in cyclic design with process vessel diameters from 220 mm to 3 050 mm and in continuous design with matrix ring mean diameters 1 200 mm, 1 850 mm, 2 500 mm and 3 500 mm.

34 Inclined plate settlers Metso's lamella principle uses several parallel inclined plates to maximise the available area for any available floor area. In this way, the size and cost of the gravity settler can be minimised by matching the thickening and clarifying requirements more closely.The two basic criteria for gravity settling equipment are good clarity of the overflow liquid and maximum density of the underflow solids discharge. The area needed to clarify a suspension is often greater than that needed for thickening. This means that in a cylindrical thickening tank, the lower section with rakes and drive mechanism can be oversized. Last years there has been an increased interest for using the Metso IPS in the Potash Industry.

Flotation pumps Metso's VF froth pump has been designed to increase the pumpability of frothy suspensions. The principle of operation is similar to that of hydro- cyclone separation. Air is separated from the slurry in a vortex created by the impeller rotation and the tangential inlet to the pump ’s conical sump.This results in more efficient pumping at higher capacities and a smooth operation, free from pulsations caused by airlocking.

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36 Atlas Copco

Quick Facts: Revenues: 63 BSEK or 6,7 billion euro’s Origin: Swedish Founded in 1873 Employees: 33,000

Overview: Atlas Copco is a Swedish industrial company that was founded in 1873. It manufactures industrial tooling and equipment. The Atlas Copco Group is a global industrial group of companies headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Revenues for 2007 totalled BSEK 63. The Group employs more than 33,000 people. The company manufactures products on 68 production sites in 20 countries. Atlas Copco companies develop and manufacture industrial tools, compressed air equipment, construction and mining equipment, assembly systems, and offer related service and equipment rental. The products are sold and rented under different brands through worldwide sales and service network reaching 150 countries, half of which are served by wholly or partly owned sales companies. The Group operates through a number of divisions within three business areas; Compressor Technique, Construction and Mining Technique, and Industrial Technique.

Mining products: Construction and Mining Technique business area develops, manufactures, and markets rock drills, rock drilling tools, tunnelling and mining equipment, surface drilling equipment, construction tools, loading equipment and geotechnical drilling equipment. This means that Atlas Copco has a complete line of drilling products which includes everything from production drilling rigs, to rock reinforcement bolts, to rock drills, all designed to help achieve high productivity with low maintenance costs, and through this business area, Atlas Copco is one of the world’s leading producers of rock drilling Construction and Mining Technique is a leading supplier to large infrastructure projects, including in particular, power plant and transportation link construction projects, as well as global mining companies. Besides drilling rigs, Atlas Copco also manufactures rock drilling tools, such as drill bits, rods, DTH hammers and cutters. Light rock drills, breakers, crushers and pulverisers are used for demolition. Loading equipment is used in underground mining operations and construction projects. The Construction and Mining Technique business is split into several divisions. Being underground Rock Excavation, Surface Drilling Equipment, Drilling Solutions, Rocktec, Secoroc, Construction Tools and Craelius.

37 Örebro Plant: The Örebro plant where the Underground Rock Excavation, Surface Drilling Equipment and Rocktec division are housed manufactures and markets worldwide a wide range of tunnelling and mining equipment for various underground applications. The division focuses strongly on innovative product design and aftermarket support systems, which give added customer value. The division employs about 2000 people worldwide. Surface Drilling Equipment develops, manufactures, and markets worldwide rock drilling equipment for various applications in civil engineering, quarries and open pit mines. The division focuses strongly on innovative product design and aftermarket support systems, which gives added customer value. The Rocktec division develops and manufactures rock drills, components and systems exclusively for the Underground Rock Excavation and Surface Drilling Equipment divisions. At its modern laboratory and research centre in Örebro, Sweden, services are provided to all divisions within the Construction and Mining Technique business area.

38 39 Zinkgruvan

Quick summary: Location: Zinkgruvan, Őrebro County, Province of Närke, Sweden. Owner: Lundin Mining Corp. (100%) Product: Zinc concentrate (Sphalerite), Lead-Silver concentrate (Galena) and Copper concentrate (Chalcopyrite) Exploitation: Lundin mining company Current production rate: 900.000t/y Production start: 1857 Mining method: single-lift bench and multiple-lift panel stoping

Overview The Zinkgruvan deposit has been known since the 14th century but large scale production wasn’t started until 1857 by the Belgian company Vieille Montagne. The mine has always been in production in foreign hands since. Up to 2000 the concession consisted of a large number of small mine rights, which were then consolidated to form one 254ha concession. In 2002 the Klara concession was granted which covers 355ha, mainly in the western part of the deposit. The Zinkgruvan and Klara concession are valid until 2025 and 2027, if mining continues these can be extended by 10 year periods. The annual production at this moment is around 900.000 tonnes of zinc-lead-silver ore and the remaining mine life exceeds ten years.

Location The Zinkgruvan mine is located 175 km SW of Stockholm, next to the second largest lake of Sweden; Lake Vättern. The Zinkgruvan village is built around the mine from the 186 ’s on and has a population of 383 of which most are mine workers. The headframe of the mine is a major landmark in the village since it is well over 70m high. Due to the location in regard to the Gulf Stream Zinkgruvan, like Stockholm, has a mild climate with average summer temperature of 18 degrees Celsius. The infrastructure around Zingruvan is good, 15km of secondary paved road bring you to the closest highway, the E20, on which in combination with the E18 you can reach Örebro (50km) where it is possible to continue by train or airplane. The port of Göteborg on west coast is accessible by lake and canal by a distance of some 200km.

40 Geology The mine exploits a 5 kilometre long felsic metavulcanic tabular deposit that is bound by sub- vertical faults at either side. The deposit is part of the Svecofennian domain. The basin is surrounded by mainly granitoid intrusions of which the oldest match the age of the felsic metavulcanics. The whole deposit lies in a synclinal structure within the lower Proterozoic Svecofennian supracrustal sequence. This sequence consists of metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks 1.90 to 1.88 billion years old, which rest on an unknown basement. The sequences that are mined are actually three different bodies but there are simplified as one 13 million tonnes body. There is one split in the deposit that is recognized as two different area’s by the miners, the one being the Nygruvan and the other the Burkland area. The ore deposit extends to a depth of at least 15 m below surface. It’s main dip is north and it extends east-west. The main deposit consists mineral-wise of sphalerite and galena which is intercalated with layers of quarzitic metatuffite and calcsilicate rocks (Marble).

Exploitation Currently the deposit is being exploited by Lundin Mining Corporation. Exploitation started in 1857 by the Belgian Vieille Montagne, who operated the mine until 1995. Vieille Montagne mined the deposit with cut and fill method. When the Australian North limited purchased the operation in 1995 they changed the mining method to panel stoping, which is employed to this day. Rio Tinto acquired the operation in 2000 but they sold the mine in 2004 to the Lundin mining group. The mine was too small for Rio and Rio was focusing more on iron, not zinc. The Lundin mining company has operated the mine since, this group has several smaller mines in the Congo, Spain, Portugal etcetera. In 2 9 the revenue was 789MSEK (±83 M€) of which 48% was earned through Lead-Silver concentrate and 52% through Zinc concentrate. This day 327 emplyees work at the mine of which 200 work underground, another 96 contractors work in and on the mine too. Lunding has several contractors in 6 divisions; Drilling, Shotcreting, Haulage, Transport and Maintenance Rigs/Mills.

41 Mining and Processing The main mining technique is single-lift bench and multiple- lift open stoping, also called panel stoping. The multiple bench open stoping, panel stoping, is possible because of the excellent characteristics of the rock. Every stope holds an average of 30000 tonnes of ore. The open stopes are being paste backfilled afterwards with a waste and concrete mixture that is pumped down the mine by four pipes. There are two shafts, P1 and P2, of which P2 is the main hoisting shaft for equipment, ore and personnel. Both P1 and P2 are not the main ventilation shafts of the mine, separate smaller shafts serve this perpose. In shaft P2 there is a 10 meter high two story elevator and a 20 tonnes skip which can travel to 800m depth. When carrying personnel or equipment hoisting speed is 7m/s, when ore is hoisted speed is upped to 12m/s. When personnel is brought into the mine most people travel with their own pickup to their jobsite, but there is also a taxi that will deliver people, walking on the ramps is strictly forbidden. The ore is crushed underground by two jawcrushers on the 800 level, the ore is crushed to 0-450mm. All ore mined under 800 meters is brought up by a contractor, that operates Volvo dieseltrucks, via underground ramps. All drilling, charging, scaling and rock bolting is mechanized, the mine operates some fast drills that drill 1000-1500 meters per day. The ore is milled and concentrated on site, the mill was built in 1976 and has a throughput of 115 tonnes per hour. The autogeneous mills are used to liberate the Galena and Sphalarite after is has been through a rougher- scavenger flotation followed by pebble regrinding and cleaning. The concentrate is then separated into 74-78% lead and 55-58% zinc. In 2007 the recovery factors were 93,9% for Zinc, 87,6% for Lead and 72,7% for Silver, a lot of silver is still lost in the tailings since it is hard to separate in the floatation process. The tailings are lead to a tailings pond around the mine, the tailings are very carbonate rich due to dilution by marble and because of that pH is very high, 10-11. A good sidenote is that this plant has seen an incredible improvement in the early 199 ’s, new technology and careful management cut the mining and milling cost by about 50%. This transformed the operation from a high cost operation to the sixth-lowest-cost zinc operations in the western world in 1993. On this moment the dilution at Nygruvan is 20-25% with an oreloss of 5% and at Byrkland a dilution of 15- 20%, also with an oreloss of 5%. The cutoff grade this day is 250SEK per tonnes of ore.

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Growth prospects

Recently a deposit of Chalcopyrite has been discovered in the sequence, this deposit is now being dug to but on this moment there is only waste production and the ore has not been reached. The mill and concentrator are also in a process of handling this new ore. On this moment production is at 1 M t/y per year but in November 2010 the new ramp to the surface will be finished, partly relieving the hoisting skip and upping the production to 1,3 M tonnes.

Mineral resources The proven reserves at Nygruvan and Byrkland are 10,76 million tonnes of Zinc-Lead ore and 2,89 million tonnes of Copper ore. Of these figures 2,00 million tonnes of Zn-Pb ore is probable and the full figure of Cu is probable, since it hasn’t been reached yet. Furthermore there is a 4,3 million tonnes reserve of Zn- Pb ore. The grade of the Zn-Pb ore is 9,4% Zn, 4,7% Pb and 102g/t Ag, the grade of the Cu ore is 2,6%, which is very low for underground copper mining. With these reserves and resources the LOM, as of June 2007, has been estimated at 15 years from now, at 2025.

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Graduates Opportunities

Each year, we offer many internship and summer placement opportunities in Europe. We consider those experiences as pre-employment. You should consider those opportunities as an induction within the company.

Rio Tinto doesn't have one typical career for hired engineers, Rio Tinto is really proud to have as many career paths as employees. We encourage our employees to grow with us on different ways and to share best practices with colleagues around the globe. At Rio Tinto, “The world is what you make of it”. Within a company as diverse and supportive as this, you can make the choices that will allow you to mould your career. The decisions you make will make a difference.

How can you join us?

Please visit our website www.riotinto.com/careers - Click on Vacancies - Sign in to create your profile - …and discover your future opportunities

“If you’re considering joining Rio Tinto, I’d say do it, and take every opportunity that’s presented to you. This company is diverse and supportive, and the multitude of those opportunities is inspiring."

Emma den Hollander Graduate Civil Engineer based in Perth, Rio Tinto Iron Ore

44 Falun + historical Bergslagen area + Sala Silvergruva Falun Mine, an UNESCO World Heritage site.

Quick Facts: Location: Sweden, Bergslagen region Ownership: 100% Eastern Highlands AB Licence area: 175 km2 Status: Exploration licence Type of Ore body: VHMS, BIF, Skarn, ore- and replacement mineralisation Commodity: Zinc, Lead, Silver, Copper, Gold

Overview: During centuries the Falun mine was of major strategic importance for Sweden. The mine closed in 1992 after more than 1000 years of continuous mining and was among the largest gold deposits in Sweden. The Falun Mine is now preserved as an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Bergslagen is a roughly 4000 km2 large Palaeoproterozoic magmatic province and mining district. It constitutes the largest concentration of base metal and iron ores in northern Europe and the Bergslagen region has been a major metal producer since the early of Mediaeval. More than 7500 old mines and smaller quarries are known in the district. It is an intensely mineralised part of a large, Early Proterozoic (1.90–1.87 Ga), felsic magmatic province within the Baltic Shield.

Ownership: Eastern Highlands AB (EH), a fully owned subsidiary of Scandinavian Highlands Holding A/S, holds nine individual exploration licences in the Bergslagen district. The licences cover a total area of c. 175 km2 of which six (6) lie within the same supracrustal belt that contains the famous Falun Copper Mine. Location: The historic mining district of Bergslagen is located approximately 200 km west and northwest of Stockholm, in the south-central part of Sweden. The Falun copper mine is situated near the city of Falun.

Mining & Processing: Because the region has been mined for over a thousand years it has seen the development of the whole mining industry. From very primitive ways of mineral extraction to industrialized modern methods. Especially the high grade ore veins are mined, later on also lower grade ores were extracted and the last decades the copper grade was 0,5%.

45 Geology: The regional geology in the licence area is dominated by Svecofennian metavolcanic supracrustal rocks mainly of rhyolitic and rhyodacitic compositions. The supracrustals have been intruded by Svecofennian orogenic granitoids generally considered to be co-magmatic with the volcanic sequence. During the orogenic build-up the supracrustals have undergone at least two deformational phases and have been metamorphosed to amphibolite facies. Late Svecofennian granitoids and associated pegmatites have been found in conjunction with these metamorphic events. Subsequently the area has been intruded by NNW–SSE trending dolerite dikes. The magmatic province consists predominantly of a felsic meta-volcaniclastic succession. Mafic volcanics components are generally rare, except in the westernmost part of Bergslagen. The volcanic stratigraphic, with a thickness up to 7 km, is overlaying terrigenous argillite-arenite meta-sedimentary units. The underlying unexposed basement rocks are interpreted to be older continental crust. The supracrustal succession developed in an evolving graben structure under shallow marine to subaerial conditions. Marble units occur sporadically, interbedded with the volcaniclastic rocks and are most abundant in the upper part of the succession. The filling of the graben occurred during a relatively narrow time span, 1904–1891 Ma. The Bergslagen district contains a diverse range of ore deposits dominated by polymetallic VHMS type sulphide- or VHMS related replacement mineralisation, carbonated or quartz banded iron formations, skarn type iron/manganese oxide mineralisation, apatite-magnetite iron ores, stratiform and strata-bound Zn-Pb-Ag-(Cu-Au) sulphide ores, W-bearing skarn and possibly larger IOCG type mineralisations. Most of the sulphide ore deposits, and a large number of the iron deposits are spatially associated with marble units, skarns, meta-limestones and hydrothermally altered metavolcanic rocks. The gold mineralisations, as found in the Falun area, appear to be related to syn-volcanic hydrothermal systems.

Simplified regional geology map of the Bergslagen area. The position of apatite-rich (blue dots) and goldbearing (red dots) iron ores are indicated.

46 Operating Performance: The mine has been in production for at least a 1000 year period. It is estimated that during the lifetime of the mine 28 Mt of ore was mined (28.1−3 . Mt @ 2-4% Cu, 4% Zn, 1.5% Pb, 13−24g/t Ag and 2−4 g/t Au). The main style of mineralisation is massive sulphide ore with ore minerals being sphaterite, galena and chalcopyrite. In addition to the massive sulphides, a Cu-Au stringer mineralisation (termed hard ore) and gold mineralised quartz veins were mined as important by-products. The mine was abandoned in 1992.

Growth prospects: The Samuelsdal target was discovered by the TEM surveys and is situated in the immediate vicinity of the Falun mine at a shallow depth of c. 75–100 m. The conductor is approximately 200 x 300 m wide and given the close proximity of the old mine this target area is very promising. In addition to promising TEM data geochemical assays results show significant gold and copper content in till samples. The Bergslagen region is regarded as an attractive mineral exploration target, with high potential for new discoveries. This is especially true for exploration at depth. In historic times mining levels seldom reached deeper than 200–300 m, and deep-penetrating exploration methods e.g., airborne TEM have been applied only sparingly. This has been underlined recently by the discoveries at Garpenberg by Boliden Mineral (the Lappberget deposit). A few shallow diamond holes drilled in the very upper portion of the Eastern Copper-Gold Zone in the final years of the operation returned encouraging intercepts of 42 mt @ 3.4 g/t gold and 0.5% copper, 24 mt @ 5.8 g/t gold and 0.5 % copper (ending in mineralisation) and 22 mt @ 2.1 g/t gold and 2.0 % copper (starting in mineralisation). Underground diamond drilling between 200 and 400 metres depth below beneath these near-surface intersections indicate that mineralisation is present, but the mine geologists assayed only sporadic short intervals of 10-20 centimetre length, instead of the full length of mineralised core. It is believed that the reason for these unusual sampling protocols was a focus on the narrow quartz veins. Despite the incomplete sampling in this area, the individual short samples contained a number of high grade gold assays. For example, some of the better results include 0.26 mt @ 190 g/t gold, 0.27 mt @ 116 g/t gold, 0.48 m @ 60.4 g/t gold and 0.22 m @ 68 g/t gold. Royal Falcon Mining (owned by Golden Rim Resources ltd. and the Royal Group) is looking at developing the surroundings of the old mine for production.

Mineral Resources: Already mined: 28.1−3 . Mt @ 2-4% Cu, 4% Zn, 1.5% Pb, 13−24g/t Ag and 2−4 g/t Au Still in place (estimations): 42 mt @ 3.4 g/t gold and 0.5% copper 24 mt @ 5.8 g/t gold and 0.5 % copper 22 mt @ 2.1 g/t gold and 2.0 % copper

47 Sala Silvergruva: This mine is open for tourist since 1970, the mine has been operating from 1400 till 1908. The started to mine in the south and when you go up north the younger the mine gets. During the operating period they started with a shaft in 1604 after a collapse between 1580-1590. This collapse took place because they were using the wrong mining methods. This shaft was build by the Germans and it was 80 meters deep. The silver was extracted from lead and zinc, it was found like little pieces in the earth. So it was hard to find. The Germans introduced a mine method with a lot of fire, this is why there are a lot of air shafts and the temperature underground is therefore 2-3 ° C. The most important shaft was the Christina shaft, this one was build between 1650-1660, until a depth of 275m. This shaft was used to transport the ore to the surface.

Very important for the mine as a museum is the new Victoria Room opened in 2008, where they have concerts and art exhibitions. And there is a room where you can spend the night down the mine.

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49 Lovisa mine

Quick facts: Company name: Lovisagruvan Lovisa mine operating an underground mine with lead and zinc ore, just north of Lindesberg in central Sweden. Number of employees: 17 Total Revenue: 41.8 Mkr ≈ 4.36 M€ Net Revenue: 7.2 Mkr ≈ .75 M€ Ships ore to Boliden Concentrator in Garpenberg.

Ownership: The deposit was found in 1985 by a joint venture between LKAB and BP Minerals. It was too small to be attractive to these big companies but the more interesting for the people who have developed a new concept for extraction of narrow ore. The former CEO and director John Berge was the leader of this concept development. Mining rights were acquired in 1989. Lovisa mine AB has approximately 450 shareholders. The number of outstanding shares is 3 322 000. General Information Low transportation costs from Reserves were originally estimated at around 400 000 tons of Lovisa Mine(A) to Garpenberg(B) pure ore with high content of 22% zinc, 14% lead and 30 g per around 20 miles to the Boliden ton of silver. It consists of an inclined disc with an average Concentrator) thickness of 0.8 m, which was identified by 80 drill holes down to about 300 m underground. At current extraction rates of over 30 000 tonnes per year and an estimated remaining lifetime of more than 20 years. Lovisa mine seeks to increase the extraction rate to 40 000 tonnes per year. (2009 production was 31 735 tonnes)

Mining Engineering: Lovisa mine uses an extraction technique developed by John Berge (among others), former CEO and board member. In the technology they developed, the narrow ore and waste rock are charged and blasted separately. The waste rock of the first slice of every level is transported to surface. When the second slice is blasted, the waste rock is used as fill (see figure 2). The method involves a significant cost advantage compared to conventional mining clogging. Lovisa mine owns the rights to this mining technology.

Figure 2: Schematic overview of the mining method used in Lovisagruvan.

50 After drilling, the holes are filled with Patronised Dynarex to blast the material. After loading the ore is transported to the surface where it is crushed to a size of 30 mm. Rock bolts are used in some areas in the mine, however in certain areas the bolting causes cracks in the brittle rock. In the mine there are three water pumping stations and five ventilation shafts.

Machinery + Personnel Drilling operations are performed by three drilling jumbos, one Boomer H104 and two Secomers. A new Atlas Copco drilling jumbo was recently ordered. This machine can drill holes of 3.3 m while the others can drill 2.5 m holes. Drilling operations are the bottleneck of the production process. The company uses four underground loaders (CTX5, CTX4, St 2D Wagner, St 2 Wagner) and a Volvo L120C is used on surface. There are also three trucks (Eimco Jarvis Clark) with a capacity of 12 tons each. Furthermore a charging vehicle, scissor truck, scaler, mini excavator and a forklift are present. At the -105 m level there is an underground workshop where the equipment is maintained and repaired. Two mechanics are hired for these operations. During a day one mechanic works one shift, except for the weekend. Before the existence of this workshop, the equipment had to move out to Stråssa. The personnel consists of 15 miners, one operator for the crusher and the mine director. Work is performed in two shifts (06.00-14.00 and 14.00 to 22.00). The miners are all capable of operating the different pieces of equipment.

Environment: The company operates with a permit under the Environmental Code in Lindesbergs municipality. The licensed activity relates to the mining of zinc and Lovisa lead ores in the mine. The business has the permits required for current operations:  The mobilization of soil  Emissions to water  Noise and vibration Improved management of mining water is being implemented whereby the already low emissions are reduced significantly.

51 Prospect: There are preparations going on for a ramp to the 190-meter level, which will help to increase the production to 35 000 tons (10% rise). At the moment the deepest level is at 150-meters below surface. Year Tonnes Zn(%) Pb(%) 2005 13314 10.12 6.82 2006 17061 10.59 7.79 2007 17172 9.92 8.29 2008 27675 9.24 5.73 2009 31733 8.94 9.13 Table 1. Showing the growth in production and corresponding average ore grades

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53 Sponsors Sweden excursion 2010

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