IM is the official Media Partner of the forthcoming international conference The Nordics and Latin America: Sustainable Mining in Luleå, Sweden. This is the second edition of the event, organised by Latnord, the first having been held in 2024 in Santiago, Chile. For 2025, the conference is being co-organised by the Swedish School of Mines and CAMM, both part of the Luleå University of Technology. Sandvik is the lead sponsor with Epiroc a silver sponsor.
Patricio Sazo Arellano, CEO, Latnord
The topic of the conference is mining decarbonisation in both the Nordic countries and Latin America, bringing together mining operators, suppliers, academia and public sector from both regions. The conference will take place on October 15-16, 2025 at Luleå University of Technology with additional site visits. IM Editorial Director Paul Moore is attending the conference and chairing a panel session there – the event has a lot of synergies with global gathering The Electric Mine, which is organised by IM Events and it represents a useful opportunity to meet with some of the companies and individuals who will also be attending that event from May 5-7, 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal – see www.theelectricmine.com for details.
We caught up with Latnord CEO Patricio Sazo Arellano recently to discuss the Luleå event – for more information and registration – see www.latnord.com/nordicmining2025
Q Can you give some background on Latnord, both the company and the annual event in terms of focus and goals?
Latnord is a consulting company working on collaborative projects involving the Nordic and Latin American countries. Latnord organises the annual conference The Nordics and Latin America: Sustainable Mining, and this year it will take place in Luleå, Sweden on October 15-16, 2025. The topic of the conference is sustainable mining, focusing on mining decarbonisation technology developments by both Nordic and Latin American mining companies. We have participation from mining companies such as LKAB, Boliden and Challenger Gold amongst others, along with important OEMs such as Sandvik and Epiroc. The conference includes site visits to Aitik mine, one of the world’s most efficient copper mines, on October 14 and HYBRIT, the world’s first pilot scale plant using green hydrogen for iron ore reduction on October 13.
Q Your first annual conference was held in Santiago, Chile but now you are coming to Luleå in Sweden – why did you choose Luleå as a location?
Luleå is a mining hub in Northern Europe located in the same region as important mines that have made some important progress steps in electrification such as Boliden Aitik and its trolley system, which we will visit as part of the conference. Notably, a mining truck from Komatsu, with the option to convert to battery operation, is being introduced in Aitik. We will have second visit to HYBRIT, focused on green hydrogen developments for mining decarbonisation. Therefore, the program in Luleå includes a two day conference but also allows for two days of site visits highlighted key decarbonisation developments. The venue is Luleå University of Technology, which has a key role in the so-called triple helix collaboration in Sweden between mining companies, academia and public institutions.
Q The conference is focused on sustainable mining – why have you selected that topic and how would you contrast the approach to decarbonisation between the Nordic region and Latin America? What was the feedback like from your 2024 Chile event?
Sustainability has become a top priority for mining companies in both the Nordic countries and in Latin America. Nordic mining companies are frontrunners in sustainability and decarbonisation developments, but also in terms of efficiency and productivity. On the other hand, Latin American mining companies operate the biggest copper mines in the world, with expertise in running large and complex operations, and meeting very challenging productivity and sustainability goals. Both regions are investing in technology developments for reaching science-based targets for Scopes 1, 2 and 3. In particular, international collaboration between mining companies and OEMs has become a priority and this event is aiming to contribute to this by bringing together mining operators from both regions with global OEMs who are contributing with technology developments. During our previous 2024 event, we had good feedback from the participating mining companies like Codelco, Boliden, BHP, Anglo American, Glencore and Sierra Gorda and also institutions such as Ministry of Mining of Chile, Swedish Mining Innovation, VTT Finland and CORFO amongst others.
Q Can you give a flavour of the speaker lineup for the Luleå event and are you also planning any site visits?
The decarbonisation strategy of mining companies will be presented by speakers such as Swedish LKAB’s Vice President of Technology, Jenny Greberg and Peter Wallin, the Electrification Program Manager at Boliden Mines. We will have a joint presentation between Sandvik and LKAB about BEV implementation in the Malmberget iron ore mine in Sweden from Tuulia Åhlman, BEV Business Development Manager at Sandvik and Pär Sundqvist, Electrification Engineer at LKAB. ReeMAP, a key project for recycling rare earths from tailings will be presented by Pär Jonsén, CTO Special Products at LKAB. Business Sweden has a key role in promoting collaboration between Sweden and Latin America in mining, which will be outlined by Joakim Dundeberg, Senior Project Manager at Business Sweden. An overview of mining decarbonisation in Finland will be presented by Saija Luukkanen, Head of the Oulu Mining School. Regarding Latin American developments, Carolina Orozco, the President of the Mining Chamber of Commerce of Ecuador (CME) will present, plus we have also invited speakers to attend from mining companies in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru, with program additions to be announced in the coming weeks.
Q Looking at Latin America and the Nordic region – how are the two regions learning from each other in a mining sense and can you give any examples of partnerships or collaborations that have directly resulted from Latnord initiatives?
The main objective of the conference is to contribute to the collaboration between the two regions. In addition to the conference, we have organised three bilateral workshops in Santiago for collaboration between Swedish mining companies with mining companies in Chile, for discussing collaboration opportunities in mining decarbonisation and other topics. We have identified valuable insights regarding collaboration between the two regions. For instance, because of the large scale of operations in Latin America, automation has been implemented earlier than in Nordic surface mines. On the other hand, Nordic surface mines have started earlier with surface electrification. This is just one example of different types of expertise that has led to insightful meetings and collaborative efforts between the two regions. Another example is the successful close collaboration between mining companies and OEMs in the Nordics, a model that is relevant for Latin American companies advancing mining innovation in that region.