LKAB targets zero emission iron ore mining around 2030
Europe’s largest iron ore producer aims at replacing all diesel-powered mining machines with electric ones at the underground mines in Kiruna and Malmberget, northern Sweden.
Swedish Energy Agency has granted 207 million kronor (€19 million) to a testbed project in Konsuln mine, hundreds of meters underground in Kiruna.
“The project will run till at least 2024 for developing and testing to find technical solutions for 100% electric types of machinery for underground mining,” says media spokesperson Fredrik Björkenwall with LKAB to the Barents Observer.
In the longer run, Björkenwall explains, is the goal to implement full-scale fossil-free operations at all of LKAB’s underground mines in Kiruna and Malmberget.
The Swedish state-owned mining company produced more than 27 million tons of iron ore in 2019, making it the largest supplier in Europe and also the largest ore producer inside the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia.
The goal is to scale up the uses of electrical vehicles in the underground mines, but also to develop autonomous mining technologies. The testbed mining takes place at about 500 meters below the surface.
“Exactly when we will reach the goal of carbon-free underground mining is not yet completely determined, but sometime around 2030,” explains Fredrik Börkenwall.
He tells that LKAB has some electric trucks and all the rail-transport from the main underground level is fully electric.
“Most of our other machinery drive on diesel when being moved between the different workspaces and shift over to electric when at the locations of work.”
The project Sustainable Underground Mining is a cooperation between the five Swedish industry groups LKAB, Volvo Group, ABB, Epiroc and Combitech and has a total estimated cost of 1,1 billion kronor (€100 million).
LKAB is also a partner in the first-ever test-factory for fossil steel production currently under construction in Luleå in northern Sweden.
As previously reported by the Barents Observer, the test-productions will be up and running later this year. In the longer run, the aim is full industrial production by 2035.
If successful with both zero-emission iron ore mining and steel productions without any carbon emissions, the projects could reduce Sweden’s CO2 emissions by 10 percent.
