LKAB and Boliden collaborate to recycle mining waste

Luleå The Swedish mining companies LKAB and Boliden will begin working together to find ways to extracting pyrite concentrate from mining waste at the Boliden Aitik mine i northern Sweden. Then LKAB will process it into fossil-free sulphuric acid. The sulphuric acid then will be used to extract rare earth elements and phosphorus from LKAB:s mining waste.

Today more than a third of LKAB:s industrial minerals business is based on upgrading waste and byproducts. Circular business models increase materials efficiency and is supposed to be an increasingly important business in the future.

Extracting critical minerals such as phosphorus and rare earth elements from LKAB:s existing waste streams requires significant quantities of sulphuric acid. Rather than this being produced from fossil products from oil refineries, waste streams from the Aitik mine could be used as raw material.

Boliden plans to establish a plant in Aitik for the production of pyrite concentrate, and LKAB plans to build plants for producing sulphuric acid from the concentrate.

“Increased resource utilisation combined with potential profitability may mean that together our companies can provide even more value in the climate transition. If the current ideas are realised it will provide yet more proof of Northern Sweden:s importance for the future,” says Mikael Staffas, President and CEO, Boliden.

If the environmental permit process do not delay the plans, it is estimated that the new plants could be operational in 2027.