Tag Archives: Leif Boström

LKAB invests in Ore Railway supply chain in northern Sweden

8th November 2023Equipment maintenance, Mining equipment, Mining services, Steel and iron oreIron ore, John Häger, Kiruna, Leif Boström, Linda Bjurholt, LKAB, Ore Railway, SwedenDaniel Gleeson

LKAB is looking to shore up its iron ore rail operations in northern Sweden by acquiring a stake and investing in new facilities for Duroc Rail AB.

The iron ore company has acquired a 49% interest in Duroc Rail from the Nasdaq-listed Duroc AB group, which retains majority ownership of 51%. The preliminary purchase price is approximately SEK75 million ($6.9 million), with LKAB also agreeing to invest up to SEK200 million to build a new industrial property for Duroc Rail at Hertsöfältet in Luleå.

Duroc Rail is a certified operator with unique expertise in wheel maintenance for locomotives and wagons with experience of the climate in northern Sweden, LKAB says.

The Ore Railway runs between the port of Luleå and the port of Narvik, passing by the iron ore fields in northern Sweden. Almost half of all goods transported by rail in Sweden and Norway is currently being transported on the Ore Railway, with LKAB’s volumes accounting for the largest share.

For LKAB, the Ore Railway is an integrated part of the production system that starts in the mine and ends at the steel and mineral customers via the railway and ports. High capacity and availability of the Ore Railway and rolling stock in the form of locomotives and wagons is therefore business critical.

LKAB said: “The investment is a further step for LKAB to strengthen its capacity and flexibility to meet the growing challenges of the Ore Railway. In the past year alone, LKAB has invested in a new locomotive workshop in Kiruna, ordered 100 new wagons and started major work to modernise and upgrade the IORE locomotives used to transport iron ore, totalling an estimated value of SEK600 million.”

Linda Bjurholt, Logistics Manager at LKAB and CEO, LKAB Malmtrafik, said: “Duroc Rail has unique expertise in wheel maintenance for locomotives and wagons. LKAB is entering into this partnership to ensure that Duroc Rail remains and develops its operations in Luleå. They are part of a larger system and a prerequisite for efficient and predictable rail transport. Rail transport is completely dependent on effective maintenance of the railway wheels. This is important for LKAB and other railway operators today, and in the future.”

The wheel maintenance business was established in Luleå more than 100 years ago. Duroc Rail currently rents premises from SSAB on Svartön, in Luleå, but due to SSAB’s planned transformation from blast furnace to electric arc furnace operations, which requires access to more land, the lease will not be renewed. New buildings, equipment, certifications and other measures mean that the move will be a major investment.

John Häger, CEO Duroc AB, said: “Duroc Rail needs new industrial properties, and with LKAB as shareholder we can ensure development and capacity for the future, where we see that the green transformation that is taking place will require more efficient maintenance of wagon and locomotive wheels. We will therefore continue to invest and develop our offering for all customers in the region. We are pleased that our more than 100-year-old company with 50 employees in Luleå will continue to develop.”

Within Business Area Special Products, LKAB is developing new businesses in addition to the iron ore production, such as industrial minerals for external customers, as well as key services such as concrete, drilling, explosives, rock work, mechanical-engineering services and maintenance for LKAB’s own operations.

Leif Boström, Senior Vice President Business Area Special Products, LKAB, said: “LKAB’s long-term strategy is to secure key services and products for efficient, safe, and sustainable operations. We work with partnerships and subcontractors, but also by developing or acquiring companies that have specific expertise, for example in managing supply risks. Duroc Rail is an important investment for us, it is a well-managed company with good development potential in several areas and will be an important part of LKAB.”

The transaction is formally subject to the completion of the property transfer for the new industrial property, which is expected to take place before the end of the year.

LKAB plots path for fossil-free industrial mine waste recycling park

28th September 2020Industrial minerals, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, Sustainable miningapatite, carbon dioxide, European Raw Materials Alliance, fertiliser, gypsum, hydrogen, Ibrahim Baylan, Iron ore, Jan Moström, Leif Boström, LKAB, phosphorus, rare earth elements, ReeMAP, Ulrika HåkanssonDaniel Gleeson

LKAB says it is planning a fossil-free industrial park for recycling mine waste and producing critical raw materials.

In the ReeMAP project, of which the aim is to develop technology for recycling mine waste, LKAB also plans to produce input materials, including hydrogen, and to electrify processes and, thereby, virtually eliminate carbon dioxide emissions in mine-waste recycling.

Ibrahim Baylan, Sweden’s Minister for Business, Industry and Innovation, comments: “LKAB continues to develop Sweden’s strengths as an innovative nation. ReeMAP is an important initiative to utilise today’s mine waste, leading to increased circularity and contributing to the green transition with both phosphorus and rare earth elements.”

ReeMAP will apply fossil-free processes for recycling mine waste (tailings) from LKAB’s iron ore production and upgrade it to phosphorus products and rare earth elements; products which, owing to import dependency and their economic importance, are classed by the EU as critical raw materials. In addition, gypsum and fluorine products will also be produced at the industrial park, through the hydro chemical processes.

As part of the ReeMAP project, LKAB has already started producing apatite concentrate from mine waste in a pilot plant.

A “pre-study” for the park is to be completed in 2021, with full production, following environmental permitting and construction, estimated to be achievable by 2027.

The planned recycling of mine waste will entail a circular business model and improve resource utilisation, since all valuable minerals will be extracted, according to LKAB. Residual mine waste will continue to be landfilled.

“Thanks to electrification, the process will be almost entirely free of carbon dioxide emissions,” the company said. “Certain minor emissions may arise, due to the release of chemically-bound carbon in apatite (bound in remnants of calcite mineralisation).”

Production of mineral fertiliser will result in a reduction of 700,000 t of carbon dioxide emissions (corresponding to 1% of Sweden’s emissions in 2019), as compared with the alternative of increasing production of mineral fertiliser using conventional technology, it said.

Leif Boström, Senior Vice President for LKAB’s Business Area Special Products, said the investment in the fossil-free industrial park amounted to several billion Swedish kronor.

“The industrial park will be a centre for chemical engineering where innovative technology is used to recover valuable resources,” he said. “Here, we will set a global standard for clean products, energy efficiency and emissions.”

LKAB said: “In agriculture, high crop yields are made possible by the addition of plant nutrients in the form of phosphate fertiliser. As much as half of all agricultural production is dependent on fertilisers. The purity of the product is also important. For example, the phosphate fertiliser LKAB plans to produce will be free of cadmium, a hazardous substance which is contained in some of the material imported into the EU. Rare earth elements are used in many high-tech products, for example, permanent magnets for electric vehicles and wind turbines.”

ReeMAP’s Project Manager, Ulrika Håkansson, explains that several challenges related to technological development, localisation and industrialisation must be addressed.

“We will need up to 50 ha to accommodate our facilities,” Håkansson said. “A railway line and port access are also important, since we plan to ship as much as a million tonnes of product a year. Production, especially hydrogen production, will be energy intensive. We are now looking at all of these requirements and conditions for possible localisation in Luleå, Skellefteå and Helsingborg.”

Jan Moström, President and CEO for LKAB, explains the importance of ReeMAP for LKAB’s strategy and future: “We have an ambition to be one of the most innovative, resource-efficient and responsible mining companies in the world. Through our development projects SUM, HYBRIT and now ReeMAP, we have assumed a global leadership role for industrial transformation and to provide the world with tomorrow’s resources.”

The European Union is tomorrow launching the European Raw Materials Alliance with LKAB as a partner. The aim is to increase the union’s degree of self-sufficiency in critical raw materials. Initially, the alliance will focus on rare earth elements.

Via ReeMAP, LKAB will have potential to produce 30% of the current EU requirement for these materials, it says.

LKAB invests in phosphorus and rare earth production pilot in Sweden

20th February 2019Environmental, Industrial minerals, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, Water managementEasyMining, Helsingborg, Jan Moström, Leif Boström, LKAB, Luleå, monoammonium phosphate, phosphorus, Ragn-Sells Group, rare earth elements, ReeMAP, Skellefteå, UppsalaDaniel Gleeson

Sweden-based miner LKAB says it will invest SEK45 million ($4.8 million) in pilot plants that could see phosphorus and rare earth metals produced from its own mine waste.

These plants are part of a prefeasibility study to define a commercial mine waste recycling process, ReeMAP, LKAB President and Group CEO Jan Moström said.

The company has made this decision after laboratory tests during 2018 confirmed it could produce more phosphorus and rare earth metals than previously estimated.

From LKAB’s iron ore production, a residual product resembling sand is currently placed in tailings dams. In the ReeMAP project, LKAB intends to recover the residual product and extract rare earth metals (REE) and monoammonium phosphate (MAP) from it.

Recovery and upgrading to phosphorus and rare earth metals is enabled by a patented process that has been developed by the Swedish company EasyMining, which is a Ragn-Sells innovation company within the Ragn-Sells Group. EasyMining is a partner in the ReeMAP project. The core process is based on EasyMining’s CleanMAP technology, which separates phosphate from water through ion sorption instead of energy demanding evaporation. At the same time, it removes impurities such as cadmium, uranium, fluorine in the MAP.

Leif Boström, Senior Vice President, Special Products Division, LKAB, said: “We are going to build two pilot plants for development and preparation for full-scale industrialisation: one in the orefields and one in Uppsala.”

The orefields plant will produce apatite from tailings sand, while the plant in Uppsala will be run by EasyMining, according to Boström.

Full-scale industrial production of MAP will correspond to an estimated 500% of Swedish demand and production of REE will amount to about 2% world production, according to LKAB. The pilot phase will continue through 2020, with a decision to go ahead with full-scale production possibly taken in 2021.

A pilot plant and a part of the full-scale production facilities will be situated close to LKAB’s existing plant´s in northern Sweden. Subsequent processing will take place in another location, for which three main alternatives are now being assessed, according to the company. The three main alternatives are Luleå, Helsingborg and Skellefteå.

Moström: “ReeMAP is a very good example of circular economy, of recovering and reintroducing resources. We will focus on developing an operation in the location that is the best alternative from an environmental point of view, minimises transportation of materials and utilises resources in the best way.

“If we succeed with the industrialisation process, we will create a whole new industry in Sweden that will supply the agriculture and engineering sectors with critical raw materials while at the same time generating jobs and value for society.”