OPERATIONS

Mines

OPERATIONS

Mines

OPERATIONS

Mines

OPERATIONS

Mines

Operations
Mines

World Class Productivity

Boliden's open pit and underground mines are some of the world's most productive. One reason for this is our constant development of new techniques and methods of exploiting resources in the best possible way. We invest heavily in maintenance technology and work constantly to modernize and streamline the design, planning and management of our mines to further raise quality. Boliden's mines are situated in Sweden, Finland and Ireland.

Ore body geometry determines whether mining takes place underground or in an open pit. In underground mines we reached the ore by means of ramps and drifts. Holes are drilled in the ore and filled with explosives in the same way as in open pit mines. The mined ore is then driven to a crushing plant and crushed into smaller pieces before onward transport to the concentrator where it is crushed again to form fine sand and the metal-rich components are separated by a series of refined methods.

The metal rich minerals are dewatered and filtered to form fine concentrates which are sent to the smelting plant for further processing. The processes in our concentrator are largely carried out through remote control, all carefully supervised from the control rooms.

Travelling time to workplaces several hundred metres below the surface can take up to an hour. At several of Boliden's mines, operators are these days able to sit in an office above ground and control loaders and drilling rigs with the aid of CCTV. The loaders drive themselves (autonomously) to a shaft where they tip out the ore before travelling back to load their buckets with new ore.

We have put mobile control rooms into use at our concentrators where operators have access to process data in real time via wireless technology. The operators control and supervise the processes via smart phones or tablets, which increases flexibility. At Aitik, we also use a tagging system that gives employees equipment status updates and facilitates maintenance work.

Boliden Aitik

The world's most efficient open-pit copper mine

Boliden Garpenberg

One of the world´s most productive underground zinc mines

Boliden Kevitsa

Open pit mine in one of Finland's biggest mineral deposit areas

Boliden Tara

The biggest zinc mine in Europe

The Boliden Area

Mineral rich mines on historical land