Name: Kittila mine.
Location: The Kittila mine is located in the Lapland region of northern Finland, about 900 km north of Helsinki and 150 km north of the Arctic Circle.
Controlling Company: Agnico Eagle Mines.
Brief History: The Kittila mine achieved commercial production on May 1, 2009, becoming Agnico’s first mine to open outside Canada. Since the completion of openpit mining in 2012, Kittila has been an underground-only operation.
Brief Description: The Kittila underground mine is extracting one of the largest-known gold deposits in Europe. The operation has a mine life of 27 years.
Geology/Mineralisation: The region around the Kittila mine is underlain by mafic volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Kittila greenstone belt, with a near-vertical orientation. This greenstone belt is similar to those hosting Agnico Eagle’s Canadian deposits, in Quebec’s Abitibi region, and Nunavut.
At the contact point between iron-rich and magnesium-rich rocks lies a 100-m- to 200-m-thick structural zone known as the “Suurikuusikko trend”. This trend hosts the Kittila deposit, where multiple mineralised zones have been traced over a strike length of more than 25 km.
Most of Agnico Eagle’s work has focused on a 4.5 km segment of the Suurikuusikko trend that hosts the five main zones of the known gold reserves and resources. From south to north they are Ketola, Etela, Suuri, Roura and Rimpi.
The ore at the Kittila mine is refractory, making gold extraction relatively difficult because the gold is generally locked inside the two main sulphide minerals – arsenopyrite and arsenic-rich pyrite. Only about 4% is very fine-grained ‘free gold’ (not locked in sulphide grains) and easier to extract. Most of this free gold is found in the outer, oxidised or eroded sections of the ore.
Products: Gold.
Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves as at December 31, 2014, were estimated at 28.54-million tonnes grading 4.93 g/t of gold.
Resources: Total measured and indicated resources as at December 31, 2014, were estimated at 14.17-million tonnes grading 2.96 g/t of gold. Inferred resources were estimated at 8.89-million tonnes grading 4.3 g/t of gold.
Mining Method: The Kittila orebodies were initially mined from two openpits – Suuri and Roura – and underground operations were added in October 2010. The pits were mined out in November 2012. Mining is now conducted entirely from underground in the Suuri and Roura deposits. Additional, small openpits will mine any remaining near-surface reserves in the future. The underground method is open stoping followed by delayed backfill.
Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Ore is trucked to the surface crusher using underground haul trucks through the 3 000-m-long ramp access system. An estimated 4 000 t/d of ore is fed to the processing plant. The ore is treated using grinding, flotation, pressure oxidation and carbon-in-leach circuits. Kittila has Agnico’s only pressure oxidation circuit (autoclave), which is required because of the ore’s refractory nature. Gold from the leach circuit is stripped from the carbon and recovered from solution using electrowinning, and then smelted in a furnace and poured into doré bars.
Prospects: Expansion of the Kittila mill was completed in the fourth quarter of 2014. With the expansion, the mill has shown potential to operate at more than 4 000 t/d, the optimal throughput rate being assessed. The company is also working to optimise underground mining rates. Unit costs are expected to improve once steady-state operations are achieved.
Drilling from the main exploration ramp at Kittila has delineated a significant zone of mineralisation with potentially wider widths and better grades than those currently being mined. The main underground ramp at Kittila is being extended to reach the Rimpi zone, and a new surface ramp is also being developed to access the shallower portions of the Rimpi deposit.
Contact: Corporate communications.
Contact Details:
Agnico Eagle,
tel +1 416 847 8669,
fax +1 416 367 4681, and
- email media@agnicoeagle.com.