On 18 May 2020, the largest seismic event occurred in LKAB's mine ever.
The center of the quake was mainly in block 22, 1,146 meters underground.
The area where the large mining landslide occurred is still closed for mining - and this has caused major problems for production.
LKAB cannot extract ore in block 22 in the Kiruna mine and has thus not been able to deliver fully to the processing plants.
Can not shut down
The company can also not close block 22 and increase mining in other areas, but the mining must take place in balance with the other mining areas.
- We have made a decision to want to get in phase with block 22, we really want block 22 to be the area that goes first, ie deepest into the mine, if you think of the whole mine as a V. So we have to break out block 22 in some form to get a safe location and to be able to produce fully in the future, says mining manager Nils Stenberg.
Full production one year away
In order to balance the production in the mine, LKAB has appointed a special project group to work out a method to get the mining started in block 22, but it will take just over a year before there is full production in the mine again.
- It is straight from the rock safety perspective you have to break out block 22. The longer this takes time, the more it will affect the surrounding blocks so time is an important factor.
Until a way has been found to break out block 22, LKAB must find other solutions to be able to keep production in the processing plants going, one solution is to take ore from the closed mine in Mertainen.
Hear the mining manager tell more about how production is affected in the video above.