They are mining Kiruna at depths of more than 1km. I have...

They are mining Kiruna at depths of more than 1km. I have discussed this mine in relation to the sub-level cave mining method adopted in this post here.

https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/up...4650432/page-72?post_id=37698395#.XJxBsRo_WhA

Kiruna would have developed been developed over a long period of time and as a consequence of a fully vertically integrated State steel industry going from mine, to benefication, furnances and steel products. Below you can find a chart of Sweden's steel production going back to 1981.

https://tradingeconomics.com/sweden/steel-production

A mine of this size isn't developed in isolation shipping product onto the seaborne market, it requires all sorts of state incentives/subsidies and the manifold of Sweden's steel industry to exist.

These type of UG mines don't come cheap either, you just have to look at the example of the Syama gold mine in Mali which isn't a patch on Kiruna which is 6.5 bigger from an ore production perspective.

I wonder why they elected to start an UG exploration decline at such an early stage as open pit reserves are supposed to still have significant LOMs. I would have thought you could get all the imformation you need from diamond drill cores.

Makes you wonder if the open pits remian as viable as their life of mines would otherwise lead investors to believe.

The company needs to give more clarity on any transition to UG mining, specifically with respect to the timing of such a development which could easily cost hundreds of milllions of dollars based on other examples.

On another note, sub-level cave mining requires as reasonably steep dipping orebody and the rock pressures in the foot, hanging wall and actual pay lode need to fall into precise ranges for this bulk Ug mining techique to become viable. Just because they are studying the option doesn't necessarily mean it will be viable in the end.Esh