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MINING

LKAB Kiruna - Sweden

lkab kiruna

w w w . e las t o p las t ic . c o m

sweden

BarChip was chosen as the


primary ground support
reinforcement.
LKAB ( Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag) is a Swedish mining company.
The company is mining iron ore in mines at Kiruna and at Malmberget in
northern Sweden. Established in 1890, it is 100% state-owned since the
1950s.
With an ore body 4 km long, 80 m thick and reaching a depth of 2 km,
LKABs Kiruna is the worlds largest, most modern underground iron ore
mine. Kiruna has produced 950 Mt of ore, yet only one third of the original
ore body has been extracted. The current proven reserve at the mine is 657
Mt grading 48.5% iron, with probable reserves of 140 Mt at 46.5% iron.
Ore is mined using sublevel caving, with sub levels spaced at 28.5 m
vertically. With a burden of 3.0 - 3.5 m per ring, this yields around 8,500 t
for each blast. The main haulage level at Kiruna lies at a depth of 1,045 m,
with construction underway of a new haulage level at 1,365 m below zero
ground level.
Kiruna now uses fibre reinforcement in over 95% of their shotcrete
operations. Extensive beam, EN 14488 and C 1550 panel tests were
undertaken to determine the best option. Results showed that BarChip
synthetic fibre significantly outperformed all competitors at both 40 mm and
100 mm deflections, making it the only choice for Kiruna.

QUICK facts
Worlds largest ore body at 4 km long, 80 m thick and 2 km underground
Worlds largest underground mine
Production capacity of 26 Mt per year
Ore contains very pure magnetite-apatite mix
Current proven reserve of 657 Mt grading 48.5% iron, with probable
reserves of 82 Mt at 46.7% iron.
Indicated and inferred resources add a further 328 Mt plus to the inventory
140,000 m3 of shotcrete is batched each year from a state of the art surface
batching plant
Eight production areas with a total of 32 ore passes between the 775 m and
1045 m haulage levels.
Construction will begin in 2012 of a new haulage level at 1,365 m below
zero level
Over 4 million cubic meters of rock will be removed to build the new haulage
level, enough to fill 7 Ericsson Globe Arenas
Reinforced with BarChip synthetic fibre reinforcement

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Distributors are located in other regions. For contact details speak to your nearest regional office listed above.
Disclaimer: This information has been provided as a guide to performance only, for specific and supervised conditions. The user is advised to undertake their own evaluation and use the services of professionals to determine the product suitability for any particular project or application prior to commercial use.
ISO 9001:2000 PS2113 Elasto Plastic Concrete 2012

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