Europe


Located near Gällivare in Norrbotten, northern Sweden, Aitik is one of the largest copper concentrate producers in Europe.

The Aitik open pit is scheduled to reach an ultimate depth of 400m in the northern section by 2012.

Succesful operation of trucks in Aitik’s Arctic climate requires thorough grading of the haul roads.

The two Rammer pedestal-mounted hydraulic breakers reduce large chunks of the difficult-to-blast Aitik ore.

Aitik is a major employer in the Galliväre municipality.


Location map for Boliden Area Operations.

Surface facilities at Kristineberg.

The tunnel between the Petiknäs and Renström mines.

Possibly the world’s most sophisticated scaling machine, a Jama Mekaniska, in use at Petiknäs.

Underground mining equipment at Petiknäs.

Swedish-built Gia locomotives haul ore on the 800m level rail system.


The Boulby mine, located in north-east England, is one of the world’s major potash producers.

The design of the surface facilities was carried out by the architect, Sir Frederick Gibberd.

A cross-section through the deposit and overlying strata, showing the aquifers above the potash horizon and the special shaft construction needed.

One of the continuous miners underground at Boulby.

Stress-relief mining techniques have helped CPL to produce potash from greater depths.

Joy shuttle cars are used to move the run-of-mine potash from the continuous miners to the main conveyors.

A simplified version of the potash production flowsheet.


Aerial view of the Galmoy surface facilities.

The access to the underground workings is through a decline. All of the orebodies are less than 100m below surface.

The geology of the Galmoy deposits. The CW orebody was the first to be discovered, with the others found by subsequent exploration.

One of Galmoy's Tamrock rockbolting rigs.

Run-of-mine ore is stored in the 'teepee' before being reclaimed for milling.

Galmoy's concentrator.

Loading concentrates into a truck for transport by road to the port at New Ross.


Location of the Garpenberg mine in the Bergslagen mining district.

Underground development at Garpenberg North.

Development at Garpenberg North reaches the 1000m level.

One of the Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer 352S jumbos.

Boliden’s Rönnskär smelter.


The location of Germany’s hard coal basins.

The Ruhr and Saar coalfields, showing the location of active mining areas and areas containing future deep-mine reserves.

One of the main hoisting shafts at Prosper-Haniel.

An Eickhoff shearer operating on a DSK longwall.

Arched development in an underground haulage.

One of the man-rider trains used to transport personnel underground at the Niederberg mine

An innovative, enclosed circular stockpile provides intermediate storage for part of DSK’s output.

1 Kemi: aerial view of the Main Pit, with adjacent processing plant and office complex
Aerial view of the Main Pit, with adjacent processing plant and office complex.
To load and transport waste and chromite from the Main Pit’s five orebodies, the contractor uses C
To load and transport waste and chromite from the Main Pit’s five orebodies, the contractor uses Caterpillar backhoe excavators loading 60t and 90t-payload haul trucks.
Roxon screens are used in the heavy medium separation plant to sort the crushed ore by size
Roxon screens are used in the heavy medium separation plant to sort the crushed ore by size.
Cavex classifiers, used in the concentrating plant to handle fine-milled chromite ore before the sep
Cavex classifiers, used in the concentrating plant to handle fine-milled chromite ore before the separation process.
Reichert cones separate fine chromite from waste material, recovering about 90% of chromite from the
Reichert cones separate fine chromite from waste material, recovering about 90% of chromite from the classifier feed.
Outokumpu Mintec Beltcon 100 analysers are used to measure the Cr2O3 content of the feed conveyed to
Outokumpu Mintec Beltcon 100 analysers are used to measure the Cr2O3 content of the feed conveyed to the HMS plant and of the final product of the concentrating plant.


The Lower Silesian copper ore field, centred on the town of Lubin in southwestern Poland.

An Atlas-Copco production drill rig in one of the underground mines

A low-profile drill rig developed specifically for KGHM by Boart-Longyear.

A BTZ hydraulic roofbolting rig.

KGHM has purchased feeder units for handling run-of-mine ore underground from the US company, Oldenburg Stamler.

Surface installations at the Rudna mine.

Coiled copper wire rod, produced at KGHM's Cedynia metallurgical plant.


Kiruna overview.

SIAB using Indau 500 raise borers for the vent shaft drilling program.

Kimit pump charging explosive at Kiruna.

Automatic locomotives are being upgraded to handle 500Mt per train on the new main level.

Remote control of trains on the 1045m level from the control centre on the 775m level.


The Kittila gold mine was constructed in 2006 and has an approximate gold reserve of 3.2 million ounces.

The mine was found within the Kittila Greenstone belt, beneath mafic, volcanic and sedimentary rocks.

Gold is mined through open-pit method. Two open pits, measuring 150m in depth are being initially mined to extract the ore bodies.

Gold is obtained from the solution through electro-winning, before it is poured into dore bars using an electric induction furnace.

Named after the community that resides nearby, Kittila is poised to become one of the largest gold-producing mines in Europe.


The Kupol mine is situated in the Cretaceous Okhotsk-Chukotka volcanogenic belt.

When it starts production Kinross expects that Kupol will become one of the lowest-cost gold and silver mines in the world.

The Kupol mill is designed to process about 3,000t of ore per day.


The Kuriskova deposit contains 14.65 million pounds of uranium.

Highly enriched uranium.


Location of the Laisvall lead mine in north-western Sweden.

Boliden makes major efforts to minimise its environmental impact.

Schematic of one of the twin-boom, electric-powered Atlas Copco drilling jumbos.

An Åkerman mechanised scaler, used to remove loose rock from the mine roof and walls.

Stringent water quality controls are needed before water is pumped back into the environment.

Lead ingots awaiting shipment from Boliden’s Rönnskär smelter.

Lead ingots being forged at Boliden’s Rönnskär smelter.


Los Frailes zinc, copper, lead and silver mine is approximately 45km west of Seville in southern Spain, on the south-east edge of the Iberian Pyrite Belt.

Los Frailes uses conventional open-pit mining methods to produce ore at a rate of 4Mt/y. Blasted ore is loaded using mining shovels into haul trucks for transport to the primary crusher.

The Los Frailes open-pit mine. Los Frailes has a design capacity of 125,000t/y of zinc, 48,000t/y of lead, 4,700t/y of copper and 90.8t/y of silver. Output in both 1998 and 1999 was affected by the mine’s suspension, but had reached around 90% of design capacity by late 1999.


Location map of Malmberget iron ore mine.

Malmberget at night.

Mining process diagram.

To move the ore, the Malmberget mine uses Finnish built Sisu Mammut trucks.

Bison electric wheel drive loaders, the buckets of which are also made of Hardox 400.

All of the ore mined at Malmberget is upgraded to pellets or sinter fines.

New loading and servicing facilities for transportation to Lulea.


Norilsk Nickel has operations at Norilsk in northern Russia and on the Kola Peninsula.

One of the main squares in the city of Norilsk, home to around 300,000 people.

Traffic in Norilsk city. Plans are in hand to move around 50,000 people to other areas of Russia where the cost of living is lower.

An Atlas Copco Wagner load-haul-dump unit used for ore haulage at one of the Norilsk mines.

An open stope underground at the Taymirskiy operation.

Servicing an Atlas Copco drill jumbo underground.


The Omagh open pit.

The Omagh gold project site plan.

Exploration drilling.

Aerial view of Kearney.


Map of the Rhineland lignite basin.

Geological section.

One of RWE Power's lignite refining plants.

Opencast mining equipment at the Hambach operation.

Twin high-capacity belt conveyors between the Hambach and Fortuna mine sites.

Moving rolls of conveyor belting requires specialist vehicles.

One of RWE’s five lignite-fuelled power stations.

A reclaimed mining area.

The resettled community of Garzweiler, one of several developed by RWE Power.


Talvivaara’s bioheapleach project – the world’s first for nickel – is centred on two polymetallic deposits, Kuusilampi and Kolmisoppi, about 30km southwest Sotkamo, eastern Finland.

The host rocks of the Talvivaara deposit consist of variably re-crystallised carbon and sulphide-rich black metasediments (black schists) bounded by medium-grained mica schist and Jatulian quartzites.

As well as nickel, the open-pit mine is also expected to produce copper, zinc and cobalt as by-products of the process.

The site is well connected to the highway network via the local roads in all directions and is close to the main railway network.


Tara is located around 50km north west of Dublin, close to the town of Navan.

An overview of the surface facilities at Tara.

Cross-section through the Tara orebody, showing the mine infrastructure.

Installing roof support from a utility vehicle basket.

One of the remote-controlled LHDs used extensively at Tara.

Two LHDs tipping into an orepass equipped with a hydraulic secondary breaker.

Tara’s pioneering environmental programmes have received recognition with an award from the Irish Government.


The Zarafshan-Newmont joint venture is situated immediately next to the major primary gold producer, Muruntau, in central Uzbekistan.

Construction of the processing plant involved the supply of parts and equipment from different sources worldwide, the US$225 million project being carried out by Bateman.

Located in the dry Kyzlkum Desert, the Zarafshan-Newmont recovery plant is optimising gold recovery from the Muruntau resource.

One of the radial stacking units supplied to Zarafshan-Newmont by the US firm, Laurel Engineering.


The Zinkgruvan mine is located near Akersund on Lake Vattern in central Sweden.

Using new Svedala RCS flotation cells has expanded concentrator capacity at Zinkgruvan.

The Zinkgruvan mine, 240km west of Stockholm, has been in operation since 1857.

A drilling jumbo underground at Zinkgruvan.

Zinkgruvan’s first Kiruna Electric truck was this K1050E with 50t payload.

In 1995, Zinkgruvan acquired a smaller Kiruna Electric truck, the K635E, for the deepest part of the mine.

Both the K1050E and the later K635E haul ore from mining areas below the main haulage level to the underground crusher.


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