SUSTAINABILITY
Digging deep for change Together with four industry partners, LKAB is planning to set a new standard in underground mining. To succeed, it needs to dig deeper than ever before. TEXT: JIMMY HÅKANSSON PHOTO: ADAM LACH & FREDRIC ALM
LKAB’S UNDERGROUND IRON ore
30 SOLID GROUND 1-21 SANDVIK MINING AND ROCK SOLUTIONS
Nils Stenberg, manager of LKAB’s Kiruna mine.
change underground mining at its core. “We see that the future is CO2-emissionfree, digital and automated,” says Nils Stenberg, manager of LKAB’s Kiruna mine. “But we cannot get there alone, so this is something we have to do together with other talented suppliers and operators.” The objectives of the project can be narrowed down to four main goals. The first is zero harm and ensuring a safer workplace for all personnel. The second is to take carbon dioxide out of the mining system. The third is to increase productivity by 50 percent. “That’s probably the greatest challenge of all, because we’re going deeper,” Lowther says. “And generally, when you go deeper in a mine, the cost goes up and productivity goes down.” Stenberg nods, and chimes in: “Our deepest operation today is 1,365 ▲
mine in Kiruna, northern Sweden, is the largest of its kind in the world. Nevertheless, the resources at the main level of 1,365 metres below surface are depleting, and to meet increasing demand there’s only one way to go: follow the orebodies farther down. By 2030, LKAB must be ready to go deeper than ever before. But the Swedish mining company won’t settle for simply digging deeper. It also wants to set a new industry standard for carbon-free underground mining. “I was in a transition phase in my career when this project came up,” says Michael Lowther, manager of LKAB’s test mine Konsuln in Kiruna. After 35 years in the mining industry, Lowther was looking for a new career challenge. This coincided with the start of the LKAB-led project Sustainable Underground Mining, an opportunity he felt he couldn’t miss. “The concept of this project is absolutely incredible,” Lowther says. “We are looking at a more sustainable way of working, and ultimately protecting the climate and the long-term future of all our societies. To me, it’s on the cutting edge of what has to be done within the mining industry.” Initiated in 2018, the project is a huge joint effort bringing together LKAB, Sandvik, ABB, Epiroc and Combitech to fundamentally
We are looking at a more sustainable way of working, and ultimately protecting the climate
