Mining

Northern Sweden is Europe’s most mineralized area. There is high geological potential in iron, zinc, silver and rare earth metals. But still, our mining industry are among the most mineralized and under explored regions in the world. All of Swedens Iron ore mines are located in Norrbotten. From an international perspective, Sweden produce approximately 90% of the iron and 40% of the lead and zink in Europe.

There are many reasons to invest in mining industry in the north of Sweden. The economy is in a strong trend and the unemployment are low. Large capital investments by businesses and the region into infrastructure, buildings and equipment are ongoing and planned. In Luleå, we find Luleå University of Technology. This is Sweden’s center for research and education focusing on mining. The clearly stated ambition is to be an internationally strong center of excellence.

Sweden are leading within many mining areas, in both research and operation of the mine. The key focus/competence area include:

Digitalization

In parallel with a high innovation the industry are incorporating the change to digitalization to enhance the efficiency of the mines. Using enhance communication in the mines (wifi) enable more data transfer enabling more data analytics which provide better decision support.

Sustainability

A high focus on sustainable mining and reducing the impact from mining on the environments. Many ongoing environmental projects focus on reducing the effect of mining on the environment.

Automation

New technology has made the mines in Norrbotten among the worlds most effective mines. This enables extracting more minerals from less ore. Further on, the automatization will enable the mines to adopt electrical machine fleets.