MATERIALS HANDLING
PRODUCTION EFFICIENCIES
DRIVING T
he air is fi lled with dust, and the large, heavy rocks pound the equipment hard. Only the toughest survive at the Aitik mine. Its operator, Boliden,
therefore takes great care in selecting suppliers for its new crushing plant. “We make sure we only use suppliers
that have experience in this fi eld. T is applies to all the investments we have made in recent years, but this project has given us the best results so far,” says Jörgen Larsson, project manager at Boliden. Visitors to Sweden’s biggest open-pit copper mine are greeted with an impressive sight in Gällivare. T e entire Empire State
Building could stand on the fl oor of the mine without reaching above its rim. Way below, some of the largest machines in the world are crawling about: excavators with a bucket capacity of 45m3
and rock trucks
capable of carrying more than 300 tons, with wheels that are a full 4m in diameter. T e ore deposits in Aitik contain a
copper ore called chalcopyrite, as well as some gold and silver. T e ore is refi ned to produce a concentrate that feeds Boliden’s own smelting works. T e rock waste, or overburden, is removed from the pit and sold for road-building and concrete production, for example.
Aitik is not only the largest open-pit copper mine in Sweden, but also among the most productive in the world. T is is thanks to large-scale production, highly effi cient methods and a high degree of automation. “We can process more low-grade ore than many other mines because of our effi ciency. We actually have lower input levels than many other mines have in waste,” says Larsson.
STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS FOR GROWTH T e Aitik mine has set a long-term goal to raise production from 36 to 45 million
Overview of the open-pit copper mine at Atik
A high-productivity mine is reaping the benefi ts of the latest hydraulic drives, explains Uno Sundelin
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