Drillcon Scandinavia AB says it has signed a new agreement with Boliden Zinkgruvan for raiseboring services at the operation in Sweden.
The assignment includes drilling a ventilation shaft with a diameter of 4.1 m and a total length of 180 m. The work is scheduled to begin this quarter and is expected to be completed by the end of the March quarter of 2026.
Patrik Rylander, President & CEO of Drillcon AB, says: “We are proud to once again have earned the trust of a long-term partner. This demonstrates that our focus on safety and innovative solutions adds value for sustainable and efficient long-term mining of minerals and metals.”
The Zinkgruvan operations include an underground mine and a concentrator with associated infrastructure. The concentrator has two processing lines, a zinc line with a capacity of approximately 1.5 Mt/y and a copper line that can process both copper ore and zinc-lead ore.
The zinc mine is in the southern part of Bergslagen at a massive zinc-lead deposit, which extends over more than 5,000 m and down to a depth of 1,400 m. The ore bodies are 3-40 m thick and consist mainly of sphalerite (zinc ore) and galena (lead ore).
The mine has a high degree of automation and mainly uses a combination of longitudinal and transverse long-hole mining. The exhausted rock cavities are backfilled with paste and cement, or waste rock, Boliden says.
