rewrite this content and don’t keep HTML tags You know you are in Dannemora when you see the stately red wooden belfry. Right next to it, it drops a hundred meters straight into a gigantic hole. The open pit “Storrymningen” testifies that this is a place with deep roots in Swedish ore mining history. The iron deposits under our feet have attracted developers since the end of the 15th century, Dannemoramalm became a brand of the highest rank in Europe. Not least in the British steel city of Sheffield, where the upland town named a brass orchestra and still lives on today in the street name Dannemora Drive. Grangex has signed an agreement where the British mining giant Anglo American buys eleven years of production. Based on today’s prices, this means an income of SEK 15 billion. Photo: Daniel Costantini SSAB stopped ore mining here in 1992, it would take 20 years for the reopening. It was managed by King Carl XVI Gustaf, who said this in June 2012: “Iron ore mining has been a backbone of Sweden’s economy for several hundred years and this production is one of the most important we have. This is a historic day in a historic place.” The story was, however quite briefly, Dannemora Mineral, went bankrupt in the billions in 2015. The calculation was based on high world market prices for iron ore – instead they went straight into the basement. Site manager Stig Johansson (left) and CEO Grangex CEO Christer Lindqvist at the top of the 72 meter high mining tower. Three miles away in the background is the nuclear power plant in Forsmark. Photo: Daniel Costantini And it can happen again, so how can Christer Lindqvist, CEO of Grangex, be so confident, and even talk about “dream scenarios”? – We will use a modern enrichment technology that allows us to extract a product with a significantly higher iron content than last time, so high that it is sufficient to make sponge iron, a raw material for the production of fossil-free steel. We get more money for it and everything points to the fact that that market will increase. He shows a bowl of a brown-black coffee-like powder that will be the final product. It contains 68 percent iron, in another bowl are the pebbles that were shipped out last time. They contain 55 percent iron. The final product, a concentrate that should hold 68 percent, which means that it can become a raw material for so-called fossil-free steel. Photo: Daniel Costantini – We are lucky that the old owners invested so heavily, for example in a new ore elevator that will bring the ore up above ground – they never had time to use it – and they have left behind thousands of drill samples that we have great use for. – And a completely different thing: Dannemora’s residents want us here, Nimby (not in my backyard) prevails here. We had two consultations last year before we submitted the application for an environmental permit. Both times people applauded. Stig Johansson was there last time it went – and knows a bit about how to not will do – and when the chance came, he postponed his retirement and became site manager here in Dannemora. – Much of the infrastructure remains, not least the railway tracks, they will take the ore down to the port in Oxelösund. The mine has remained dry, much of the electricity down there works. But we are changing the production process, old-time dust and noise disappear. They are scrawled down but never used, the ore baskets that hold 15 tons and are now supposed to transport the ore from the mine up to the ground surface. They remained after the bankruptcy in 2015. Photo: Daniel Costantini Christer Lindqvist, mining engineer at the bottom, wanted to get his hands on the mine as early as 2016, but Per Berglund “snapped it in front of my nose”. Two years ago, they merged their portfolios and today jointly own just over a third of the listed company. The idea is to produce one million tonnes of ore per year from 2025 – to compare with LKAB’s 26 million. The most important reason why the CEO can be cocky is probably the agreement with one of the world’s largest mining companies, British Anglo American, which was finalized a few weeks ago. This means that the company is buying eleven years of production, SEK 15 billion in today’s ore prices. The condition for the exclusivity is that you are also involved in financing the investment of 1.8 billion. Anglo American has also paid just over 100 million for Grangex’s operation until this autumn, when it is expected to have a completed environmental permit. Iron ore has been mined in Dannemora since the 15th century, now the plan is to invest 1.8 billion to create a mine without carbon dioxide emissions. Photo: Daniel Costantini – It’s a complete game changer! We get a secured cash flow for many years, and Anglo American becomes a quality stamp that makes it easier to attract investors and lenders, says Christer Lindqvist. But is it all over then, after only eleven years? – No, but this is what we have agreed on now, and what we know we can deliver. But we will drill in new ore bodies as well, it is not unreasonable to believe in production until 2050. It is the mine manager Michael Meyer who drives us down the mine, he knows all its roads in his head since the last adventure. He’s had jobs underground for decades, but thinks this might be the most fun.
You know you are in Dannemora when you see the stately red wooden belfry. Right next to it, it drops a hundred meters straight into a gigantic hole. The open pit “Storrymningen” testifies that this is a place with deep roots in Swedish ore mining history.
The iron deposits under our feet have attracted developers since the end of the 15th century, Dannemoramalm became a brand of the highest rank in Europe. Not least in the British steel city of Sheffield, where the upland town named a brass orchestra and still lives on today in the street name Dannemora Drive.
Photo: Daniel Costantini
SSAB stopped ore mining here in 1992, it would take 20 years for the reopening. It was managed by King Carl XVI Gustaf, who said this in June 2012:
“Iron ore mining has been a backbone of Sweden’s economy for several hundred years and this production is one of the most important we have. This is a historic day in a historic place.”
The story was, however quite briefly, Dannemora Mineral, went bankrupt in the billions in 2015. The calculation was based on high world market prices for iron ore – instead they went straight into the basement.
Photo: Daniel Costantini
And it can happen again, so how can Christer Lindqvist, CEO of Grangex, be so confident, and even talk about “dream scenarios”?
– We will use a modern enrichment technology that allows us to extract a product with a significantly higher iron content than last time, so high that it is sufficient to make sponge iron, a raw material for the production of fossil-free steel. We get more money for it and everything points to the fact that that market will increase.
He shows a bowl of a brown-black coffee-like powder that will be the final product. It contains 68 percent iron, in another bowl are the pebbles that were shipped out last time. They contain 55 percent iron.
Photo: Daniel Costantini
– We are lucky that the old owners invested so heavily, for example in a new ore elevator that will bring the ore up above ground – they never had time to use it – and they have left behind thousands of drill samples that we have great use for.
– And a completely different thing: Dannemora’s residents want us here, Nimby (not in my backyard) prevails here. We had two consultations last year before we submitted the application for an environmental permit. Both times people applauded.
Stig Johansson was there last time it went – and knows a bit about how to not will do – and when the chance came, he postponed his retirement and became site manager here in Dannemora.
– Much of the infrastructure remains, not least the railway tracks, they will take the ore down to the port in Oxelösund. The mine has remained dry, much of the electricity down there works. But we are changing the production process, old-time dust and noise disappear.
Photo: Daniel Costantini
Christer Lindqvist, mining engineer at the bottom, wanted to get his hands on the mine as early as 2016, but Per Berglund “snapped it in front of my nose”. Two years ago, they merged their portfolios and today jointly own just over a third of the listed company. The idea is to produce one million tonnes of ore per year from 2025 – to compare with LKAB’s 26 million.
The most important reason why the CEO can be cocky is probably the agreement with one of the world’s largest mining companies, British Anglo American, which was finalized a few weeks ago.
This means that the company is buying eleven years of production, SEK 15 billion in today’s ore prices. The condition for the exclusivity is that you are also involved in financing the investment of 1.8 billion. Anglo American has also paid just over 100 million for Grangex’s operation until this autumn, when it is expected to have a completed environmental permit.
Photo: Daniel Costantini
– It’s a complete game changer! We get a secured cash flow for many years, and Anglo American becomes a quality stamp that makes it easier to attract investors and lenders, says Christer Lindqvist.
But is it all over then, after only eleven years?
– No, but this is what we have agreed on now, and what we know we can deliver. But we will drill in new ore bodies as well, it is not unreasonable to believe in production until 2050.
It is the mine manager Michael Meyer who drives us down the mine, he knows all its roads in his head since the last adventure. He’s had jobs underground for decades, but thinks this might be the most fun.
Photo: Daniel Costantini
– It will be something completely new. All our machines are to be electric, we avoid diesel exhaust down here, and that way we can cut down on ventilation and save energy. And then we will make an incredibly high-quality product.
In the past, the ore loads were driven up to the surface by truck, now it will be different.
– We are installing a crusher down here, the ore is transported in huge baskets in an elevator up to the tower up there.
At a depth of 240 meters Michael Meyer sweeps his hand through the darkness to say that here are 13 different ore bodies stretching over three kilometers. There is more to extract here.
Photo: Daniel Costantini
The mountain is dry, it is compact – but it does not only contain goodies. Here, as in several other mines, there is asbestos, whose elongated and spear-like fibers can penetrate the lungs and cause cancer.
– We have measured both radon and asbestos in the air and are in control. All levels of fibres, respirable dust and quartz in air were below detection limits, well below their respective hygienic level limits. Before loading onto the mining trucks and during crushing, the ore is sprayed with water so that all the dust settles down, says Michael Meyer.
At full production, there will be 180 employees at the mine – in a place that just barely meets the Statistics Norway’s limit of 200 people to be called a built-up area.
– I’m already getting requests for jobs. There are quite a few miners who live in the area, but work in the north. The mine could shake life in the town, believes Stig Johansson.
The opposition councilor in Östhammar’s municipality Lisa Norén (S) also hopes so:
Photo: Lovisa Nordqvist
– It is very funny that the mine is being resurrected, it feels festive given the long tradition and exciting that it will be carbon dioxide-free production. It will create jobs directly, but also for other local entrepreneurs.
Lisa Norén sees the Dannemora mine as part of the North Upland industrial cluster that you want to be a part of creating. She says that over the next few years, 35 billion will be invested in Östhammar’s municipality – other investments are nuclear waste storage in Forsmark and a new factory for aviation fuel.
It went wrong last time in Dannemora – how worried are you about a repeat?
– I cannot assess the business aspects, I trust that they have made a careful analysis of what did not work last time. In any case, a big difference is the raw material prices.
Photo: Daniel Costantini
How will Östhammar municipality support the mining project?
– Not directly, but our responsibility will be to make sure that people want to come here and work. This means investing in schools, outdoor activities and even better and sustainable communications, says Lisa Norén.
Now Michael Meyer has brought us down to ground level again, and then we instead go 72 meters up into the lava, i.e. the mining tower where the crushed ore is to be transported from the underground. From here, it must fall under its own weight to a “dry” section where it is further crushed. The ore is then treated in a wet process, it is new and that premises is to be built, and there it becomes the brown-black iron concentrate to be sold.
Photo: Daniel Costantini
Christer Lindqvist crouches in the wind on the roof, he says that on a clear day you can see Forsmark’s nuclear power plant three miles to the east.
– We want to be the first truly green mine, much of it will be operated with fossil-free electricity. The only carbon dioxide problem is really the explosives, but we are working on that.
A million a year of an iron raw material that is sufficient to make green steel should really fit like a glove for, for example, the Boden company H2 Green Steel, which has not yet announced how it will handle the ore supply.
Photo: Daniel Costantini
However, it seems far from obvious, you understand that when Christer Lindqvist tells what happens when the iron ore has left Dannemora.
– When it is loaded onto Anglo American’s boats in Oxelösund, we get paid and then it is their ore. It will then be pelletized somewhere, perhaps in North Africa, and then sold to producers of green steel. It could of course be to Sweden, but it will be a question of price and something we have no control over, says Christer Lindqvist.