IM’s Great Mines series recently looked in-depth at two very different mining groups – the long established and gold-focussed Newmont; and First Quantum, a diversified newcomer with its roots in DRC but growing rapidly through greenfield projects like Sentinel and well timed buy-outs of operations like Ravensthorpe. We have also exmained Freeport-Indonesia in detail, published a series on LKAB and in November report on the great Lucky Friday silver mine. For our next series of Great Mines, we are looking at Lundin Mining, also a relative newcomer, but having built itself into one of the most solid mid-tier base metal mining groups, owning many of the major European assets in this sector including Neves Corvo, Zinkgruvan, Galmoy and Aguablanca. It is also the JV partner with Freeport in Tenke Fungurume in DRC, the largest and richest grade copper and cobalt operation globally. If you have news of equipment or services used at these mines, we would be pleased to hear of it.

Our first article will focus on the history of Lundin’s development as a company, from its early years in the 1990s as a junior, its merger with EuroZinc in 2006, purchase of Rio Narcea in 2007 and the development of Tenke and the involvement of BHP, Phelps Dodge and finally Freeport as Lundin’s majority share partner in the project. It will also look at some of the future plans for Lundin with mines like Galmoy winding down; and its place within the Lundin Group of Companies, which includes some impressive industrial minerals assets. The subsequent articles will look at each of Lundin Mining’s operations in depth, beginning with the flagship fully owned operation, Portugal’s Neves Corvo, in our January 2012 issue.