Boliden to spend $530 million on improving Aitik mine’s tailings dam

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Miner Boliden said on Monday it would spend 5 billion Swedish crowns ($530 million) over the next two years on works on the tailings dam at its Aitik copper mine in northern Sweden.

“Areas with poorer soil conditions than previously estimated have been identified. Additional dam heightening and deposition of tailings against dams in these areas has therefore been suspended,” it said in a statement.

“Ongoing geo-technical investigations in Aitik show the need to eventually change to a new dam construction method to ensure long-term disposal of tailings. In addition, there is a need to strengthen the current dam construction.”

Boliden said it did not expect production at the northern Swedish open-pit mine to be affected as tailings could continue to be deposited in other parts of the pond during the works.

The Swedish company now sees group investments totalling just over 11 billion crowns in 2022, up from previously communicated just over 10 billion.

($1 = 9.4405 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Simon Johnson, Kirsten Donovan)