AITIK - Copper Mine

 copper mine, mining, open-pit mine

Aitik Mine is a copper and gold mine producing two tons of gold per year. It is the largest gold mine of Sweden and the largest operating copper mine in Europe.

Owned by Boliden AB, this low-grade open pit copper mine opened in 1968, and now produces about 18 millon tonnes of copper ore per year, with minor amounts of silver and gold. Boliden plans to double production in next few years, and the mine has sufficient ore reserves to operate until at least 2025.

The Aitik Copper Mine in Sweden is the first large, low-grade open pit copper mine and one of the largest productions of copper in Europe. Copper was discovered in the 1930s and extracted on a large-scale basis during the 1960s. At the start of extraction, the mine produced two metric tons of ore per year, which has since increased to 19. The Aitik Mine has been in the ownership of Swedish company Boliden since 2004 and employs approximately 350 people.

As an open pit, the mine undergoes drilling, blasting, and haulage of materials via truck. The southern section of the Aitik Mine has reached 820 feet (250 m) and the northern part is 1,312 feet (400 m). The pit was extended from 1989 to '91, when the company Roxon built an in-pit crushing station and a concentrator connected to a conveyor within the mine. The stripping ratio for the mine by 2004 was 1:1—1.8 metric tons per month.