Metso has secured an approximately €40 million order to supply a broad package of mineral-processing technology for the Viscaria copper mine in Kiruna, northern Sweden, extending its role across much of the project’s planned production flowsheet.
The contract with Gruvaktiebolaget Viscaria covers crushing, flotation, magnetic separation, filtration, slurry handling, hydrocyclones, process analysis, and associated engineering. It follows a separate January order for a Select SAG mill and Select ball mill, giving Metso responsibility for equipment stretching from primary size reduction through to final concentrate handling.
Viscaria is targeting annual production of around 120,000 tonnes of copper concentrate and is being developed to become Sweden’s second-largest copper producer. The latest order moves procurement further into the equipment and detailed-engineering phase as the project prepares the systems required to turn mined ore into a marketable concentrate.
The new package begins with a FIT crushing station incorporating Nordberg C Series jaw crushing and HP Series cone crushing equipment. Crushing prepares mined material for the grinding circuit by reducing particle size before the ore reaches the SAG and ball mills ordered earlier this year.
Grinding then liberates copper-bearing minerals from the surrounding rock so that the valuable material can be separated downstream. The efficiency of that stage influences almost every process that follows because insufficient liberation can reduce recovery, while unnecessary over-grinding increases energy consumption and creates finer particles that are harder to manage.
Metso’s flotation scope includes both TankCell and Concorde Cell equipment. Flotation uses controlled chemistry and air dispersion to separate valuable mineral particles from unwanted material, concentrating relatively small quantities of copper-bearing minerals from substantially larger volumes of crushed and ground ore.
Plant performance at this stage affects concentrate grade, metal recovery, reagent use, water demand, and the amount of material that has to be thickened and filtered later in the process. The selection and sizing of the flotation equipment therefore has to match both the expected ore characteristics and the throughput of the upstream grinding circuit.
Magnetic separators are also included because Viscaria’s flowsheet is designed to recover iron-bearing material alongside copper processing. Integrating that stage into the wider plant allows the operation to treat different mineral streams within a coordinated process rather than adding a separate recovery system after the main copper circuit has been designed.
Downstream dewatering will use Larox PF and VPA filters. These remove water from concentrated mineral slurry so that the resulting product can be handled, stored, and transported more efficiently while allowing process water to be recovered for reuse within the plant.
The order additionally covers a thickener system, slurry pumps, MHC hydrocyclone clusters, and process analysers. Hydrocyclones classify particles according to size and density within grinding circuits, while slurry pumps move abrasive mixtures between process stages where flow reliability has a direct effect on overall plant availability.
Process analysers provide the measurement needed to adjust operating conditions as ore characteristics, throughput, and recovery change. In a plant containing several interconnected separation stages, those measurements help operators determine whether a performance change originates in grinding, flotation, classification, or another part of the circuit.
Supplying much of the plant through one major equipment package also reduces the number of interfaces between independent systems. Individual machines can meet their design specifications while the complete plant still underperforms if capacities, controls, or material flows are poorly matched between stages.
Detailed process engineering is therefore an important part of the contract. Equipment selection has to reflect expected ore properties, production targets, water balance, maintenance access, electrical requirements, and plant layout, while pumps, pipework, instrumentation, platforms, and control systems must connect the machines into a coherent production line.
Charlotte Odenberger, chief operating officer at Viscaria, said the consolidated equipment package would support continued detailed engineering, secure critical machinery, and improve execution predictability as the project progresses.
The latest award follows approximately €16 million of grinding equipment ordered from Metso in January. Together, the two announced packages represent roughly €56 million of processing technology before other mine-development, infrastructure, construction, and utility contracts are included.
Copper remains central to electrical infrastructure as well as its established use across machinery, construction, transport, and electronics. Grid reinforcement, renewable generation, electric vehicles, data centres, and industrial electrification are all increasing demand for conductive materials, putting additional attention on European projects capable of moving domestic resources into production.
Kiruna already supports a substantial mining and engineering base, but restarting Viscaria as a modern copper operation requires a complete processing system able to meet current production, efficiency, maintenance, and environmental requirements. With procurement now extending across most of the main flowsheet, the project’s next industrial milestones move towards equipment manufacture, installation, integration, commissioning, and eventual ramp-up to its planned concentrate output.
