Major increase in LKAB’s mineral resources
Exploration in 2023 has increased state mining company LKAB’s mineral resources by 43 per cent.
LKAB reports that the company has now increased the total amount of mineral reserves and mineral resources to 5.7 billion tonnes.
At the end of 2023, LKAB had mineral reserves of more than 1.1 billion tonnes and mineral resources of approximately 4.6 billion tonnes in Svappavaara, Malmberget and Kiruna including Per Geijer. Since its inception in 1890, LKAB has mined a total of about 2 billion tonnes. In addition to iron ore, all of LKAB’s ores contain minerals from which the critical materials phosphorus and rare earth metals can be extracted.
The Per Geijer deposit in Kiruna has close to 1 billion tonnes of total mineral resources, of which 1.7 million tonnes are rare earths, making it the largest rare earth deposit in Europe.
“These significant mineral assets reflect the strong exploration work of LKAB in recent years. The potential is clear to underwrite Sweden’s iron ore supply, and possibly that of phosphorous and rare earth material, for many decades to come,” says Ian Cope, Vice President Exploration at LKAB.
Mineral resources are deposits that have not been subject to in-depth technical and economic analysis. When this has been done, the deposit can be classified as a mineral reserve if it is deemed worth mining.
This article was originally published in North Sweden Business.
