The company produces zinc, copper, lead, nickel, silver, and gold, with operations in Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Ireland.
Boliden is linked to a major environmental disaster in Spain[1][2] and is also accused of threatening human rights defenders following the disposal of toxic waste in Chile.
Metal grades at Aitik are low, but this is compensated for by high productivity levels and efficient milling processes that also exploit the ore's gold and silver content.
An expansion project that will double Aitik's ore production to 36 million tonnes per annum by 2014 began in 2007 and will be completed in 2010.
The main metals are zinc and copper but the production of lead, gold and silver also makes a substantial contribution to the Business Area's revenues.
Approximately 60 per cent of the plant's lead production is sold to the European battery industry, with the remainder used in the manufacture of roofing sheet.
The leading light in the development of the Boliden company was Oscar Falkman (1877–1961), who was the driving force behind the exploration work that began in the second decade of the 20th century, and which was accelerated due to the metal shortage that arose in the wake of World War I. Falkman continued in the role of Boliden's President until 1941.
The ore tramway was 96 km long and by the time it was shut down, 44 years later, it had transported 12 million tonnes of concentrate.
In the mid-1980s, Boliden exported a total of 19,139 tonnes of metallic residues containing high concentrations of arsenic, mercury, cadmium and lead,[3] from the Rönnskär smelter to a Chilean company, Promel, for processing.
Boliden paid Promel for processing work that was never carried out and the residues were, instead, stored on the outskirts of the city of Arica at a site which was converted to a low-cost residential area in the 1990s on the instructions of the social services.
The original export documents had specified that the metallic residues were 'non-toxic' [3] and residents were unaware of the waste's presence or potential for harm.
The same year also saw Boliden acquire the Spanish company, Apirsa S.L., which extracted zinc from the Aznalcóllar open pit mine, 45 km west of Seville.
On 25 April 1998, the tailings dam at Apirsa's Los Frailes mine burst and 4.5 million cubic metres of tailings sand drained out into the nearby Guadiamar river, near Doñana National Park, causing the worst environmental disaster in Spain so far.
[14] 2020 On 2 September, Boliden Mineral AB, represented by the law firm Mannheimer Swartling Advokatbyrå AB, filed a complaint to the Disciplinary Committee of the Swedish Bar Association against lawyers Mr Johan Öberg and Mr Göran Starkebo.
The complaint, seeking to make them personally liable for costs incurred by Boliden in defending the ARICA case [15] was considered by the United Nations to be a threat equivalent to the first SLAPP [7] (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) in Swedish history.
[16] 2013 796 residents of Arica brought a legal case against Boliden in the Swedish courts[3] 2006 Decision to invest in an expansion of the Aitik mine.
1998 The Spanish Los Frailes mine closes as a result of the tailings dam failure, causing extensive damage in the environment, near Doñana National Park.
[3] 1984 Boliden began shipping 19,139 tonnes of toxic waste, containing high concentrations of arsenic, mercury and lead, from its smelter in Sweden, to Arica in northern Chile.
According to Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, "Boliden shipped approximately 20,000 tonnes of smelter sludge to the Polygono area in Arica between 1984 and 1985.
The waste derived from Boliden's Rönnskär arsenic plant in Sweden and was sold to a Chilean company, Promel, for processing.
Starting in 1989, housing developments were built nearby, but Chilean authorities concluded in 2009 that the area should be evacuated as it remained contaminated."
Letters relating to the case, which dates back to Boliden’s export of 19,139 tonnes of toxic waste containing high concentrations of arsenic, mercury, cadmium and lead from Sweden to Chile between 1984 and 1985.
June 2021, a feature documentary film ARICA was released in Swedish cinemas The Boliden toxic waste scandal was discussed in Swedish parliament where the Minister of Environment, Per Bolund (Green Party) indicated his willingness to discuss assistance to Chile to clean up the affected areas in Arica, saying: “We have … much sanitation work of our own, on which we are spending lots of resources.
Senado exige al Gobierno repatriar residuos tóxicos a Suecia | Crónica The then Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andres Allamand, announced in public that Sweden would be contacted in the matter.
Two Swedish Green Party MP’s, Maria Gardfjell, vice chair in the parliament’s environmental and agricultural committee, and Amanda Palmstierna, member of the parliament’s EU-committee, made a statement confirming the comments made in June by the Minister of Environment Per Bolund.
[20] In a review of the film, film critic Jessica Kiang describes the scene: "And in probably the most unsettling and memorable scene, which plays out like a live action Monty Python animation, colonial-era British soldiers pack a huge brass drum outfitted with trumpet horns of varying sizes with chained black slaves.
The door is closed, and a fire is lit beneath the drum, which begins to revolve slowly (it is emblazoned with the name of Swedish mining giant Boliden) and to emit a kind of music.
All this, it is revealed, is being enacted for the entertainment of a group of elderly rich, champagne-sipping white people in evening wear.
"[21] The smelting victims in Arica is also the topic of Toxic Playground, a Swedish documentary by William Johansson and Lars Edman released in 2009.