Technology

A Mine of the Future

The Sakatti deposit is located north of Sodankylä, at a depth of 250–1,200 metres, partly beneath the western edge of the Viiankiaapa Natura 2000 area. Viiankiaapa is a valuable aapa mire complex, and already at an early stage of project planning, the implementation option with the lowest possible impacts on Viiankiaapa’s habitats and species was selected for the Sakatti mine.

The Sakatti mine is being designed in line with Anglo American’s FutureSmart Mining™ approach, leveraging technology, digitalisation and impact‑reducing practices throughout the entire value chain. The mine is designed to be low‑carbon, which supports the company's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2040

Reducing Environmental Impacts Through Technology

The planned processing plant will be located outside the protected area. Ore extracted deep underground will be transported for processing through carefully sealed underground access tunnels more than five kilometres in length. All materials, equipment, personnel, water and air used in mining operations will move through the tunnel system. One option being studied for the construction of the tunnel system is the use of tunnel boring machine (TBM) technology. Read more about this.

Wasterock generated by mining will be utilised in the construction of infrastructure at the plant site. Tailings produced during ore processing, along with a significant portion of waste rock, will be used as backfill in the mine. The remaining low‑sulphur tailings will be deposited at the plantsite as filtered tailings.

AI can be used to optimize mineral processing, allowing significantly more minerals to be recovered from each load of ore. In addition, the further refinement of side streams into marketable products is being developed to reduce the amount of mining waste.

Enabled by small footprint, filtered tailings deposition, high water‑recycling rate, and careful water management and treatment, the impacts of mining operations on water bodies can be minimized.