samsamsam

visited a mine facility in kiruna. the public open place is about 540 meters below ground. so you take a bus down slopes thats dark and dusty for a long time, and end up here. the infomine of LKAB mine in Kiruna



very well versed tour guide tells us of the different minerals found in this area.


watch a short clip on the mine and its products. im guessing this is one of the deepest theatres in the world. the sound accoustics was not bad to my surprise.



live size scooper. its radio controlled from the 7th storey of the HQ building above ground. because the mining has gone down lower than 1km deep, its important to minimize the number of people underground and use automation in all possible situations.



what a real mine tunnel looks like. its pitch black by the way, just trying to say that my camera flash is very good. (self praise)



boring machine. yeah, yawn*


borers. the thing that bores. and its not cheap, i think 2000 euro per piece or something




hmmm, what would happen if i push this big red button?



a real scouper, check out the tire size. its so large that they use water in the tires instead of air. and the rubber is super hard


one shovel can lift 5 tons of rocks


some other bit, forgot for what


they blast the rockface and chunks like this come out


after more crushing and powder-ing, it is formed into balls, called iron pellets.


because its iron and soem of it is magnetised, the compass goes crazy in here


theres a museum that displays olden day mining equiptment


drilling used to be by hand


they used to have trams that go into the mine. discontinued.


catching the last tram out





very nice experience.


the mine used to be an open mine, so they dig and dump the waste at the back, after many many many years, the openmine was closed and they started digging tunnels but the waste from the open mine was so much that it formed a hill at the back of the mine, its a three tiered hill, the one the rabbit was staring at in on of my previous posts.