Болиден: Шведский горно-металлургический гигант и экологические риски

Swedish multinational metals, mining and smelting company

Boliden AB (stylized as New Boliden) is a Swedish multinational metals, mining, and smelting company headquartered in Stockholm. The company produces zinc, copper, lead, nickel, silver, and gold, with operations in Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Ireland. Boliden is linked to a major environmental disaster in Spain and is also accused of threatening human rights defenders following the disposal of toxic waste in Chile. In 2003, in a major deal, Boliden acquired Outokumpu's mining and smelting assets within zinc and copper. The company name comes from the Boliden mine, some 30 km northwest of the Swedish town of Skellefteå, where gold was found in 1924. It was once Europe's largest and richest gold mine, but has since 1967 been defunct. In 2020, Boliden Mineral AB became the first company in Sweden to issue a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. UN Human Rights experts from OHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights at the United Nations) wrote to the managing director of Boliden to convey concerns of alleged ongoing breaches of human rights, including ‘intimidation and threat [against] human rights defenders’. In August 2021, Boliden joined up with several of the world's other major mining companies and Komatsu to advance zero emission mining. In August 2021, Boliden ranked second among mining companies in Bloomberg Intelligence's low carbon ranking. In 2017, Boliden was rated the world's second most climate friendly mining firm with regards to carbon dioxide.

Business Area Mines conducts exploration, mining and milling operations in Sweden, Finland, and Ireland. Its main products are zinc and copper concentrate, with some lead, gold and silver content. The goods produced are sold both to the Group's own smelters and to external customers. Boliden owns and operates Europe's biggest zinc mine at Tara in Ireland. Tara became part of Boliden in early 2004, but production began there in 1977, since when over 60 million tonnes of ore have been mined. Boliden also owns Garpenberg, which is Sweden's oldest mine still in operation. Mining at Garpenberg, or extracting metals from the ground, began as early as 375 bc. The mineral rich Skellefte field lies within the Boliden Area, where almost 30 mines have been opened since production began in the 1920s and where Boliden currently operates the Renström and Kristineberg underground mines and the Maurliden open pit mine. Boliden also owns and operates the Aitik open pit mine, which is one of Europe's biggest copper mines. Metal grades at Aitik are low, but this is compensated for by high productivity levels and efficient milling processes that also exploit the ore's gold and silver content. An expansion project that will double Aitik's ore production to 36 million tonnes per annum by 2014 began in 2007 and will be completed in 2010.

Business Area Smelters refines both metal concentrate and secondary materials to produce base and precious metals at smelters in Sweden, Finland and Norway. The main metals are zinc and copper but the production of lead, gold and silver also makes a substantial contribution to the Business Area's revenues. Other products include sulphuric acid and aluminium fluoride. Boliden owns and operates two zinc and two copper smelters and one lead smelter. The Kokkola zinc smelter in Finland is the second largest in Europe and the fifth largest in the world, and mainly produces an alloy used in the galvanising of thin sheet metal. The Odda zinc smelter, which produces zinc for the steel industry and aluminium fluoride for Norway's aluminium industry, is located on the west coast of Norway. The Rönnskär copper smelter is located in the Swedish town of Skelleftehamn and its main products are copper, zinc clinker, lead and precious metals. The smelter, which produces sulphuric acid as a by product of its operations, also produces metals from electronic scrap and other secondary materials. The Harjavalta copper smelter, located on the west coast of Finland, produces copper cathodes that are mainly sold to manufacturers of semi finished goods. Other important products include gold, silver and sulphuric acid. The Bergsöe lead smelter outside Landskrona in southern Sweden extracts lead from scrap car batteries. Bergsöe is one of Europe's four biggest players in the lead recycling industry. Approximately 60 per cent of the plant's lead production is sold to the European battery industry, with the remainder used in the manufacture of roofing sheet.

The Aitik copper mine (a major mine within the company) was featured on a 2007 episode of the Discovery Channel series Really Big Things. Released in 2014, Swedish director Roy Andersson's film A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence includes a controversial scene which, according to the director, refers to Boliden's involvement in dumping dangerous toxins in the Chilean city Arica in the 1980s. In a review of the film, film critic Jessica Kiang describes the scene: "And in probably the most unsettling and memorable scene, which plays out like a live action Monty Python animation, colonial era British soldiers pack a huge brass drum outfitted with trumpet horns of varying sizes with chained black slaves. The door is closed, and a fire is lit beneath the drum, which begins to revolve slowly (it is emblazoned with the name of Swedish mining giant Boliden) and to emit a kind of music. All this, it is revealed, is being enacted for the entertainment of a group of elderly rich, champagne sipping white people in evening wear." The smelting victims in Arica is also the topic of Toxic Playground, a Swedish documentary by William Johansson and Lars Edman released in 2009. In 2021, the topical satirical show Svenska Nyheter (Swedish News) included a 12 minute segment about the ARICA case, with a resident of Arica gathering a sample of contaminated soil, putting it in an envelope and mailing it back to Boliden.