It seems that among us there is some serious investment money on the line here with Talga, so I would like to share a bit of Googling work, to gauge the feelings of the average Swedish citizen towards what Talga intends with its graphite mine.
The rationale for this was that politicians, if nothing else are very quick to pick up on community sentiment, particularly at election time.
The first pointer was that Talga's mine is right next door to the LKAB's iron ore mine which has been operating profitably to supply all of Europe for 120 years and is currently 1.4 km under ground and still going strong.
If you compare and contrast Talga with its graphite and LKAB with its iron ore there are sufficient similarities that the average Swedish citizen would say "looks like Talga could be LKAB's little sister"
1. Both have tightly defined seams that goes nearly straight down and in Talga's case horizontally, for ever ???
2. The quality of both ore bodies are the best in the world
3. Graphite is much much lighter than iron ore, so the extraction tasks should be much simpler
4. LKAB is Government owned, while Talga is foreign and a bit unknown.
5.
6.
And how much does the average Swede know about what LKAB does? I would suggest, quite a lot.
1. With 120 years of operation, I would tender a guess that no Swedes would have got through their school years with out one or more lessons on the subject and quite a few would be remembering past school projects
2. LKAB mine has an underground visitor centre that hosts 4 hour tours daily during summer and weekly during winter
3. Some of their comments, good and bad can be found on Tripadviser
https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g189815-d2251520-Reviews-LKAB_s_Visitor_Centre-Kiruna_Norrbotten_County.html4. More information is available on the LKAB website
https://lkab.com/en/what-we-do/from-mine-to-port/One extract below:
How our underground mining works
In LKAB’s underground mines, the ore is extracted by sub-level caving. This is an efficient mining method for steep ore bodies and allows maximum extraction from the ore body with a high degree of safety.
- Drifting : Construction of transport tunnels, or drifts, into the ore body.
- Production drilling : Using a remote controlled drilling rig, long holes are drilled upwards through the ore body in a fan-shaped pattern, known as a fan cut.
- Blasting : A creamy-textured explosive is pumped into the holes. Blasting is done every night.
- Production loading : The resulting ore is removed by large haulers, dumped into vertical chutes and collected in rock cavities.
- Chute loading and transporting : From the rock cavities, the ore is transported to large crushers using trains or trucks, depending on which mine.
- Emptying and crushing : The trains and trucks are emptied into rock bins for onward delivery to the crushers. The ore is crushed into pieces measuring about ten centimetres.
- Hoisting : The ore is then transported to the surface by ore elevators, called skip hoists. Each skip can carry 40 tonnes of ore at a speed of 60 kilometres per hour, or 17 metres per second.
Check out the last point. Talga with its spiral track to the surface is not in this league.
In conclusion I would suggest that the average Swede would have a good working knowledge of what Talga's mine might look like, 10 years down the track.
Don't seem to be any nasties in store and the anti mine lobbyists come down to the Sammi, those professionals who lobby everything and perhaps a small number of extreme socialists who believe that the Swedish government should own every thing. Not an Australian company.
(20min delay)