Northland Resources has finalised an agreement with Pon Mining International (Pon Equipment AB) for the supply of Caterpillar and Bucyrus mobile mining equipment for the Kaunisvaara iron ore project. The mine equipment order covers the supply of all key mobile mining equipment up to 2015.
Karl-Axel Waplan, President and CEO of Northland said: “This is one of the key agreements for the Kaunisvaara project. The access to the essential pieces of mining equipment is of vital importance…with this agreement, we will be able to keep to our project schedule. We believe that Pon Mining International’s significant experience and service capability will benefit and substantially reduce the operational risks for Northland going forward.”
 
The order is for the supply of 23 machines including two large Bucyrus RH340 electric hydraulic excavators with face shovels, 12 Caterpillar 226 short ton 793F haul trucks, a number of large Caterpillar 994F wheel loaders and a number of graders and dozers. The delivery of the first batch of equipment is scheduled for the middle of 2012 ensuring the successful ramp up of mining operations. Kaunisvaara is located in northern Sweden, approximately 100 km north of the Arctic Circle, in the municipality of Pajala. After its completion, the annual capacity of the process plant will be 12 Mt of iron ore from which 5 Mt of iron ore concentrate will be produced.