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The Sydvaranger Company was since it in 1906 opened its Bjørnevatn mine south of Kirkenes, Arctic Norway, the cornerstone company in the municipality of Sør-Varanger. In 1996, the mine closed after a long period of negative results, thus forcing the local community to develop alternative industries.
In June 2006, the Tschudi Shipping Company bought the land and facilities of Sydvaranger AS, and started plans for the reopening of mine.
In the summer of 2009, the Sydvaranger mine restarted production. The project has an estimated mine life of 19 years at an annual production rate of 7 Mtpa of mill feed.
The mine is connected with railway to the port of Kirkenes from where the ore will exported.
Mine operator is the Sydvaranger Mine company, which is owned by the Northern Iron Limited, a company controlled by Tschudi Shipping.
Iron ore deposits worth 12 billion EUR
Geologists believe the iron ore deposits outside Kirkenes, Finnmark County, can be worth as much as 12.2 billion EUR. The Geological Survey of Norway plans to survey all mineral deposits in Northern Norway.
The geologists believe the ground in Northern Norway can hide vast resources. The Norwegian Government is positive towards increased exploration.
- The level of geophysical prospecting in Norway is very low compared to our neighboring countries Sweden and Finland, says Karsten Sandvik in Northern Research Institute, according to newspaper Finnmarken. Sweden and Finland have spent ten times as much as Norway on mineral exploration in course of the last ten years, he says.
The iron ore deposits outside Kirkenes are exploited by the Sydvaranger Mine Company.
