“Now we’re kicking off!” was the single phrase in an email sent to marketing@grindex.com, which caught our attention. Scrolling down we found the sender to be Swedish mining personality Bengt Ljung. Attached to the single-phrase email were a nice picture of a Grindex Minex pump and an Atlas Copco compressor in a typical small scale mining start up in the north of Swedish Lapland, a site called ‘Fäbodtjärn’. Since both Grindex and Mr. Ljung’s Botnia Exploration are members of the “Swedish Mining and Tunnelling Group” we had no problem approaching Mr. Ljung to find a time in his busy agenda to explain a bit more about the background to the picture.
“Can you tell us some more about the picture you sent us?”
The picture was taken at a gold deposit called Fäbodtjärn when we were drilling last week, in order to complete the environmental impact analysis. We had to dig a trench of about 2½ meters wide, to take samples, and then restore the area in its original state. The work went well, faster than planned and I thought you’d appreciate the picture.
“What’s so special about this site?”
This site is a great showcase to show the potential of small scale mining as opposed to the usual large scale projects. Botnia Exploration wants to show that it’s possible to achieve economically viable mining methods, even on a small scale, that would allow for mining to continue to develop with much less environmental impact than large-scale projects would usually have. If we take a look at history, up until the 20th century most mining was small scale. There were 1000’s of small sites. That approach was….read the full story
