Jun 4, 2010 - Norway's North Cape Minerals A/S has secured a "significant and long-term contract" to supply olivine to Swedish iron ore producer LKAB, only months after LKAB subsidiary Minelco A/S revealed it would close its 2m. tpa capacity olivine mine in Greenland.
North Cape, the world's largest olivine producer, was the original supplier to LKAB prior to Minelco starting up the Seqi olivine mine, west Greenland, in 2005.
It is thought that the group, a subsidiary of Sibelco Nordic, previously supplied around 300,000 tpa olivine to LKAB.
Seqi olivine essentially promoted Minelco to the rank of world No.2 producer overnight, but the project was short-lived: after only five years of activity the group announced in February that it would close the mine by 1 November 2010.
At the time Minelco reported: "We see that we can strengthen the competitiveness of both LKAB and Minelco by purchasing olivine from an external supplier."
Remarkably, Seqi's closure will remove almost 25% of the world's olivine capacity from the marketplace.
The contract with LKAB is good news for North Cape, which temporarily suspended production at two of its three olivine mines last year after suffering lower demand from iron and steel markets.
North Cape, the world's largest olivine producer, was the original supplier to LKAB prior to Minelco starting up the Seqi olivine mine, west Greenland, in 2005.
It is thought that the group, a subsidiary of Sibelco Nordic, previously supplied around 300,000 tpa olivine to LKAB.
Seqi olivine essentially promoted Minelco to the rank of world No.2 producer overnight, but the project was short-lived: after only five years of activity the group announced in February that it would close the mine by 1 November 2010.
At the time Minelco reported: "We see that we can strengthen the competitiveness of both LKAB and Minelco by purchasing olivine from an external supplier."
Remarkably, Seqi's closure will remove almost 25% of the world's olivine capacity from the marketplace.
The contract with LKAB is good news for North Cape, which temporarily suspended production at two of its three olivine mines last year after suffering lower demand from iron and steel markets.
