Out of the twenty ore bodies located in Malmberget, ten are currently being mined. LKAB mines a total of 17,4 tonnes of iron ore here every year. The large working site means lots of activities going on under ground at the same time, and a lot of people working there. That puts a lot of pressure on the ventilation system’s functionality and efficiency. They currently pump 1400-1700 cubic air into the mine every second.
– This VOD system saves us about 57-74mw per year per fan, depending on what type of fan it is. It also decreases the carbon monoxide and NOx due to less required heating of the air, says Robert Hansson, Ventilation engineer at LKAB.
The mine air is heated by burning oil. With this system LKAB use somewhere around 10 cubic meter less oil every year. The ventilation on demand system that we provide for LKAB is one of the oldest, yet one of the most modern systems there is.