Swedish minerals group Minelco AS, part of LKAB, acquired
100% of the mining rights to the Seqi Olivine deposit, located
in Seqinnersuusaaq, Fiskefjord, west Greenland, in June 2005,
and wasted no time in preparing the site for mining.
Drilling machines, track excavators, and crushing equipment
were all transported by sea to the greenfield Seqi site –
around 90km north of Greenland’s capital, Nuuk –
where Minelco and contractor MT Højgaard Grønland
ApS had established a 340 metre long, 16 metre deep permanent
pier.
The sea along the west coast of Greenland is normally
ice-free, owing to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream. The
water around the bay at Fiskefjord, however, has its own
eccentric currents, and thus Minelco was restricted to
developing the Seqi deposit during Greenland’s short
summer season.
Minelco’s chief executive officer, Per-Erik Lindvall,
said of the site development: “There is no official world
record in how fast you can set up a mine in a true greenfield
location, but if there was, I think that our performance in
Seqi must be one of the fastest ever. The first equipment
landed on the site in early July 2005 and the first ship left
Seqi in December 2005 with 45,000 tonnes of olivine.”
Just over a year later, by August 2006, the necessary quay
facilities had been installed and olivine production was
running at full capacity of 1.1m. tpa. Minelco is the second
largest producer of olivine globally (600-700,000 tonnes in
2008), with Norway’s North Cape Minerals AS leading the
market (2.4m. tonnes in 2007).
| Flow chart production at Seqi |
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Mining
The Seqi olivine deposit is worked as an open pit mine.
Typically, once the company geologist has located a suitable
area, a Tamrock drill is used to drill around 100 holes, each
89mm in diameter and 12 metres deep. The cores recovered from
the drilling are then examined at Minelco’s on site
laboratory and the quality of the olivine is determined.
When all holes have been drilled, the rock is blasted using
a mixture of dynamite and ammoniac nitrate fuel oil. Each blast
yields approximately 15-20,000 tonnes of olivine ore in lumps
ranging up to 800mm in size.
This material is then loaded by a track excavator - a Volvo
EC 700 with a bucket capacity 3.8 m3 - on to Volvo
A40 trucks, which transport the material 1.2km to the crushing
plant. The plant, designed by Sandvik, is equipped with a
hydrocone crusher and a jaw crusher, screening equipment and
conveyor belts.
Here three fractions of olivine are produced (0-3mm, 3-10mm
and 10-70mm) and the finished products are transported by a
Volvo L350 loader, which has a capacity of 1,000 tph, to the
storage area.
| Location of Minelco’s Seqi Olivine
deposit |
 |
Finding fjords
Vessels entering and leaving the port at Fiskefjord need to
pay attention to the special current conditions that occur in
the narrow part of the fjord. These same currents also prevent
the build up of winter ice.
Minelco’s port has several restrictions in place. It is
capable of bearing vessels up to 200 metres long and 14 metres
wide, and a tug is available to assist all ocean going vessels,
however vessels may only navigate the fjord in daylight and
only at a slack water period. High water at Seqi is in the
range of 2-4.5 metres.
Vessels entering the port are loaded by a B&W mobile
Samson feeder and conveyor. The loading berth has a length of
230 metres, and loading capacity is around 20,000 tpd.
From the port, Minelco ships its olivine primarily to
Norway, with smaller shipments transported to the Netherlands,
the UK and USA. This material is then processed according to
customer requirements. The main markets for olivine include
slag conditioning in steel furnaces, refractory bricks, EBT
tap-hole filler, abrasives, and - increasingly - in CO2
sequestration.
The Seqi operation is staffed by around 30 employees, with
the majority comprising native Greenlanders. Each worker has
individual living quarters, which are equipped with
entertainment facilities and exercise areas, and two cooks are
available on site.
Minelco provides medical first aid at the Seqi campsite, and
for serious injuries the company has an agreement with a rescue
helicopter service based at Nuuk.
Weather conditions in Greenland are variable, with the
summer months a relatively balmy 15°C, and the winter
season reaching lows of –35°C. Production is stopped
when temperatures fall below –20°C.
Acknowledgements: Lars-Göran
Johansson, Greenland site manager, and Sofia Bergström,
manager materials supply, Minelco AB, for logistical insight
into Minelco’s Seqi Olivine operation.