It is as close as you can get to the middle of no-where. Not far from the village of Kittilä in Finnish Lapland. Along the road towards Inari. 250 workers are employed in the mine and enrichment facility. It is Europe’s largest operating gold mine.
Officially it is called the Suurikuusikko gold deposit. On Tuesday this week, the first gold bars produced with gold from the Kittilä mine, were shown to the press. This week is a good week to start the production. The gold prices on the world marked are sky-rocketing.
Profitability of the Kittilä Gold Mine in northern Finland has risen dramatically as a result of the world economic crisis.
In an interview with YLE, Igmar Haga, European Director of mine owner Agnicola Eagle, says the price of gold has doubled in three years. The company believes the price of gold will remain high and could even increase.
The mine’s gold production will reach its projected level of around five tonnes of gold per year during this spring. Kittila has probable reserves of 3.0 million ounces.
That gives an estimated lifetime of 15 years. Maybe longer.
The gold will initially be extracted via open pit followed by underground mining via ramp access.
The mining operation will feed a 3,000 tonne per day surface processing plant, according the the mining company’s own web-site.
Around EUR 115 million has been spent developing the site, writes Helsinki Sanomat.
Seven years ago, when the Canadian mining company Agnico-Eagle still had the Kittilä mine at its planning stage the ingot would have been worth only half of what it is today, and even then the project was seen as a profitable exercise.
