Outokumpu Technology to deliver a pelletizing plant for LKAB, Sweden

Outokumpu Technology has signed a contract with LKAB, a leading Swedish iron ore mining company and pellet producer, to design and deliver a new pelletizing plant for LKAB's Malmberget project in Northern Sweden. The contract value exceeds EUR 60 million.

Outokumpu's scope of the delivery consists of engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the new plant, which will be based on Lurgi Travelling Grate technology. The plant is designed to produce 2.5 million tonnes per year iron pellets at the start-up phase, but its capacity can be increased with only minor modifications. The plant commissioning is scheduled for December 2006.

This is Outokumpu's second pelletizing plant delivery to this same customer. The former Lurgi Metallurgie, acquired by Outokumpu in 2001, built the first travelling grate pelletizing plant for LKAB in Malmberget in 1971.

Furthermore, Outokumpu Technology and LKAB have a successful technology partnership with development and marketing of another innovative agglomeration process, the Steel Belt Sintering (SBS), originally invented by LKAB in Malmberget for the pelletizing of smaller quantities of iron ore fines and later successfully applied by Outokumpu Technology for agglomeration of chrome and niobium ores worldwide.

For further information, please contact

Outokumpu Technology GmbH, Germany
Thomas Schwalm
tel. +49 6171 9693 197

Outokumpu Technology Oy, Finland
Martti Nurmisalo
tel. +358 9 421 2664

Outokumpu Technology AB, Sweden
Jan H Nilsson
tel. +46 91087622