LKAB’s Gällivare foundations: flowsheet and by-product notes for plant engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
LKAB has started laying the foundation for a new sorting plant at its Malmberget iron ore mine in Gällivare, a key step to secure long-term operations as existing processing infrastructure ages. The plant is designed to stabilise production and increase throughput while incorporating circuits to handle apatite-rich streams for downstream recovery of rare earth elements and phosphorus. For process and plant engineers, this signals future flowsheet changes around apatite separation, tailings management, and integration of critical-mineral by-product lines into an established iron ore operation.
Technical Brief
- Construction sequencing must maintain current iron ore output while integrating new sorting capacity on site.
- Structural design will need to accommodate heavy vibrating screens, crushers and high-capacity conveyor loadings.
- New plant layout will require re-routing of ore and waste streams within a constrained, operating mine footprint.
- Integration of apatite-handling circuits implies additional slurry pipelines, pumps and separate stockpile or bin systems.
- Process control will have to manage variable apatite content without destabilising iron ore product specifications.
- Tailings management strategy will change, with distinct streams for iron-bearing and apatite-rich residues.
Our Take
In our database, the Malmberget iron ore mine features repeatedly in 2025–26 items on electrified haulage and new sorting plants, signalling LKAB is using this asset as a test bed for both decarbonisation and higher-grade product strategies rather than just life-extension.
The linked June 2026 coverage of Sandvik and ROXON Oy supplying crushers and 60 conveyors to the Malmberget sorting plant suggests that any move to recover apatite, phosphorus and rare earth elements will likely be integrated into a large-scale, high-throughput materials handling upgrade rather than bolt-on pilot kit.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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