Boliden’s 2013 Capital Markets Days: Complex raw materials bring opportunities and challenges

Some fifty financial analysts, bank representatives and business journalists will spend two days visiting the Boliden Area, including the Kankberg gold mine, and the Rönnskär smelter, during Boliden’s annual Capital Markets Days. Boliden has chosen, this year, to focus on the challenges posed and opportunities offered by complex raw materials.

The Boliden mining area and the Rönnskär smelter are both good examples of the way in which complex raw materials are processed. Complex ores have been mined in the Boliden Area for almost 90 years now, and Rönnskär and the Boliden concentrator were built to produce base and precious metals from these ores. Over the years, Boliden has developed wide-ranging expertise in this field − expertise that is proving extremely valuable when it comes to handling today’s geological and metallurgical challenges.

“The urbanisation of the developing countries is driving the demand for Boliden’s metals, while at the same time, increased supply is resulting in a certain amount of pricing pressure. The challenges that we and the sector as a whole face relate primarily to the costs associated with developing new deposits. The ores in the world’s mines are becoming increasingly complex, low-grade, and deep-seated, while at the same time, environmental requirements are becoming increasingly stringent. We are focusing on developing our techniques and processes to ensure that we can handle difficult raw materials as cost effectively as possible while maintaining the best possible environmental performance,” says Boliden’s President & CEO, Lennart Evrell.

Expansion projects
Boliden’s expansion projects are, as previously announced, in intensive developmental phases. Production at Kokkola’s facility for extracting silver from zinc concentrate is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2014. The new facilities at Garpenberg are scheduled to come on line during the first six months of 2014, with the aim of achieving an ore production level of 2 million tonnes by the end of the year. Full production of 2.5 million tonnes per annum is to be achieved by the end of 2015.

Production levels at the Aitik copper mine are currently close to achieving the production target of 36 million tonnes of ore per annum.

“Aitik’s production levels were strong during the second and third quarters, clearly exceeding an annual rate of production of 36 million tonnes. We are, however, now moving into the seasonally weaker periods when low temperatures force us to run the equipment more cautiously. We are currently investigating the potential for increasing production at Aitik to 45 million tonnes per annum and, at the same time, extending the mine’s lifespan, and we expect to reach a decision on this issue next year. The Laver project is, however, further into the future: we have extended our concept study there and 3,500 tonnes of mineralisation were mined in the autumn as part of a trial run. The next stage involves submitting an exploitation concession application,” says Lennart Evrell.  

Events affecting income
A cable fire at the Harjavalta smelter earlier in November resulted in a production shutdown which lasted a few days, and is expected to have a negative impact on the fourth quarter result of EUR 4 million. Maintenance shutdowns at the smelters in 2014 are also expected to negatively affect the second and third quarter results by SEK 140 million and SEK 80 million, respectively.

For further information, please contact:
Frans Benson, Director Group Investor Relations, +46 (0)8 610 1523
Marcela Sylvander, Director Group Communications, +46 (0) 733 244 551

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