Wherever you are right now, take a look around. Base metals are all around you, sometimes hidden, sometimes visible, but always there. We've been building our societies with metals for more than 10000 years. And now we're on the point of change to a fossil free future. We're relying on base metals to get us there because the amount of metals needed for new Cleaner solutions, simply more than for traditional ones.
And as we electrify industries, more and more base metals will be needed. That Places a huge responsibility on us, Europe's largest base metals company. That's why we've reviewed our purpose, our vision, and our values so that we all know why we're here. What we want to achieve and the values we work by. Today, our purpose This is to provide the metals essential to improve society for generations to come.
Our vision, that's where we want to be as a company, the most climate friendly and respected metal provider in the world. And our values, having the courage to challenge existing ways, speak up for what's right, take initiatives. We're working on fossil free mining right now, and we're getting there. Care for each other, for the way we mine, the environment around us for our carbon footprint. And responsibility, delivering on our promises, taking responsibility for our actions, for the planet and for each other.
The world needs a sustainable future and we at Boliden are needed to make that happen.
You. Welcome you to Boliden's 2021 Capital Markets Day. My name is Olof Gjerdan Mark, and I'm Head of Investor Relations. Friendly and respected metal provider. We will have presentations by our CEO and President, Mikael Staffas and his whole group management team.
Please participate by asking questions. There will be plenty of times for you to Questions, and I will make sure that they get forward to the speakers. At We always put safety first. And as you know, it was our intention to have a live event here today with physical guests. Unfortunately, we couldn't do that.
And for those for the few people that are present in this room, we've already had a safety demonstration. But for all you listeners out there, please make sure you know where your closest escape exit is. By that, it's a pleasure for me to welcome our President and CEO, Mikael Stasas. Mikael, The stage is yours. Welcome.
Thank you, Olof. I would also like to welcome all of you to be here. It's a pity that I can't hear you here in the room. We're actually in the same place now as we were 2 years ago when we had our last Capital Markets Day. But it's, of course, better to have you in there and I'd also like to point out today is St.
Patrick's Day. I know that that is important for some of you. It's also important for us. We have operations in Ireland. And everybody out there who has some Irish background, congratulations to all of you.
I would like to start first to talk about what we're not going to talk about. We're not actually today going to talk about The value of our metals so much. You all know that our metals are absolutely fundamental for everybody else To be able to achieve their targets, to be able to achieve their electrification and achieve their goals regarding sustainability. But you all know that, so we're not going to talk so much about Exactly why you need copper, nickel and zinc and so on in order to provide electrification and new services. I will also not talk so much about the fact that we are in Europe and that Europe is short of all these metals and that Europe will need to secure The metal base that they have, as you know, with the vaccination, a vaccine discussion that's going on right now, You all know what pressure there is in Europe generally to be dependent on the outside world and not be able to control your own destiny.
And you know For many of these metals that we're talking about today, the self sufficiency in Europe is maybe 20%. I'm not going to talk about that I will also not talk so much about all the work that's been done during Boliden's 100 year or soon 100 year history. We'll talk a little bit about it indirectly. Both our smelters and mine will summarize a little bit what wasn't done in the last 24 months since the last Capital Markets Day. And of course, also when talking about sustainability, we'll come back to what we've been doing in order to have the very good starting position that we have.
But we're not going to focus so much on that. We're also not going to talk so much about any kind of distant future, 25 year out kind of targets. We will talk very What we do right now and what we'll do in the next few years. You will today Meet the whole management team. Actually, my job today is to keep a low profile.
You have a chance to meet me a little bit more often, Every quarter at least. But the rest of the team, you don't see that often. And this is your chance to both listen and have a chance to ask questions to the rest of the To the rest of the management team that I have here today. Just a few comments on the management team itself. It is now well formed, and I have put together a team since I took over the responsibility that is my team.
I'm extremely proud of this team. He's worked extremely well both as individuals and also together. It is also important that this is a small team. We're only 5 people in the top management group of Boliden. To me, that's a very important point, and I'll talk a little bit more about governance in a few moments.
But to me, it's an important point to make sure that you have a small An efficient group that can really take responsibility and drive things forward and don't have big staff functions, overly sized That sometimes you might feel safe having, but in the end of the day, we all know that they are both costly and that it also means that we don't make decisions as quickly and swiftly As you need to do. We also have a team of very relevant experience, even though some of them are new to Boliden. They've also worked in Our industry, we're in similar industries during many years, and together we have a strong position. In the introductory film, you get a little bit of sense of the values work that we've done. Sometimes people don't take this too seriously.
And I can also say that 3 years ago when I took over the helm, I think we had a lot of versions of visions and missions and statements around. We decided it was time to make this clear and make sure what we really stood for. And we have been made clear that our purpose is to provide the metals that are essential To improve society for generations to come. And that's something that we work by. You saw that in the film in the beginning, and you also see that coming back.
Regarding our vision, I just want to point out that our vision is to be the most climate friendly, not to become. I think we already are. Maybe there's somebody who wants to dispute that with us. Well, there may be 1 or 2 of us, but we're clearly leading in the world. And our ambition is to remain there and to stay there.
And we're going to talk about How we will do that, both to be the best and the most respected metal provider in the world. For this, we have our 3 value words that we've chosen With lots of discussions, we've actually made it a relatively big democratic discussion within the company to make sure that we get the words that we really want to cover, That we have care, that we care for each other, the environment, our customers, the products and so on. We have the courage to speak up when things are wrong. We have the courage to be the strong and to be right. And we also had take the responsibility for What we're doing, we're taking responsibility for each other, for the health of our employees, for the health of our contractors and also for Environmental around, and also we'll talk a little bit more about that.
I will spend just one moment on this exhibit. I think many You've seen it before because it's not brand new. But I think it's important to understand when you talk about the culture of Boliden that we are in a way an organization that can cover many different areas. And in order to be a good worker in this organization, You need to be able to work across this. In some way, we're a small organization.
6,000 people is not that much. On the other hand, we're very large. We're one of the largest companies in the Stockholm Stock Exchange. We have big investment programs that we're running all the time, and we are The biggest or 2nd biggest base metals company in Europe. We're local.
We're very local. We work in very remote areas. We don't work fly in, fly out. We actually have people and our managers living at the places where we have our operations. And of course, we're a very important local participant there.
At the same time, we're global. We're part of a global market. We have global investors that are investing to us, And we take part in a global market both for securing supplies to our smelters and for selling our metals. We are, in one way, a very conservative company. Safety is extremely important.
We want to make sure that we don't do anything wrong. You have to be very Secure. And also, we'll talk a little bit about our safety record as we come here, but I will always steal one of the key punch lines. We now have 13 years of fatality free operations, Which is unique in this industry and I think in any industry. And I usually point out that if our employees were to behave like the average Swede or the average Finn On their spare time, there's typically about 1 person dying in accident in their spare time every 2nd year.
And now we have 13 years of fatality free operation. It's not always been like that because we have developed, but for the last years, it's been very At the same time, as we're conservative, we're also cutting edge technology wise. You know that there are certain parts of Automization, digitization, where we are really in the forefront of working around those areas, and we're very happy to do that, and we're happy to make sure that we are both conservative and very progressive in advance at the same time. For us, this is not like in the U. S.
Politics, something that you have to be Either or you can actually be both. We also have, and I alerted that a little bit in the beginning terms of our governance, we have a very decentralized governance model. And for us, that is extremely important. We have, even though we've The last few weeks had a little bit of issues with COVID and we'll talk about that. But generally, we've been able to handle COVID very well.
We've been able to handle Many other issues very well, and it is because of our very decentralized model where we have very good and skilled and experienced people in the right positions and with a very high amount of power, also accountability being high, but also high amount of power to be able to run our ten operations the way that we do. They have a long relevant history. And I also like to make the point here, even though it's slightly joking, we had the discussion this morning, that Today, for those of you who are football fans, you will have seen that Zlatan Ibrahimovic is coming back to the Swedish national team. And Zlatan sent out a tweet or On Instagram or whatever he did saying that God is back. We will never be able to do that because it's not important to us.
We are a team. We are a team that works together and we're a team that's not dependent on individual persons around us and we have local operations that will work very fine Even if the central head office would disappear for a while. I also must be able to take the point here when talking this one That everybody sees that in this group of 10 people that are actually the ones who are running our operation, 3 are women. I think this is also unique to this Industry and we're happy that it is that way and we have very good people generally working on this level. We will talk about how we will develop from having a very strong sustainability position in terms of most of our metals.
We will talk about that competitive start what we have already today. We will talk about the world's what we think first the verified low carbon copper Launched that we will be able to sell and that you will be able to then eventually get Through the help of whoever you're buying your copper things from, we'll be able to see that it's polluted inside, and we'll see how that will work out. We have, by the way, decided we're not going to wait for some central bureaucrats to decide on specific ways to do this. We have set our own standard, and we're very Happy for everybody else to follow. Now we're starting from a very good starting point.
We probably are already Very good. But it doesn't mean that we're in any way satisfied. We have a very clear and ambitious target to reduce our CO2 footprint With 40% until 2,030. And we will talk a little bit about what we're doing to make sure that happens. We will also talk about that we have This mineralization is maybe not the biggest one.
It's small, but it's interesting. It has very high values. But it also shows that we continue to develop the That has been around now for almost 100 years. And that for the last 20 years, it's been 6 years horizon until shutdown. We can prove that we can continue to develop that one further and further.
We'll also give you an update on some of the other prolongations that we're working with. We'll talk about the Revli then the Kristinberg Update on what we're really doing there. We'll also talk about the Tara Deep and give you an update of what's happening there. We'll talk The Oda project, and I think you'll get a good sense of why we're so keen on it already when you see the sustainability footprint of Oda today. And then when you know that we can have an even better sustainability going forward, combined with what we feel is attractive economics, you will understand we think this is such an interesting project.
And finally, Hakan will also go through our financial position. The financial position is strong, Continues to be strong. And here maybe our conservative side is showing through the most in the sense that we're sticking very So with that, everybody, I wish you all welcome. It's great to have you all here. I hope that you will have very good day today.
Thank you.
Mikael, I'm happy to say that we have got several Questions here over the web, but we will wait with those. We will have time for questions for Mr. Staffas And the rest of the group management at the end of our session, we will have a group Q and A then. Instead, it's a great pleasure for me to announce the next speaker, Oza Jaksson, Senior Vice President, Corporate Responsibility. Oza, the stage is yours.
Welcome.
Thank you very Much, Olof, and good day to all of you. I'm very happy to be here today to update you On our journey on going from strong sustainability performance to world class I will also include in my presentation some fresh examples of how Our CO2 position looks like in comparison with the industry. But let's start with our Care for people. As always, on top of the agenda in Boliden, Healthy and safe workplaces are crucial to running successful business. It's not only key for our employees' and contractors' well-being, but also Important for our productivity and profitability.
As Mikael already mentioned, We are quite unique in this industry with no fatalities since 2,008, But we still have accidents. As you can see, we have had some ups and downs in our LTI rate The last couple of years, but if we go back 10 years, we have decreased significantly Between 50%, 60% in accidents, both for employees and our contractors. And we have had a constant reduction of the severity in our accidents. And I strongly believe sorry. The right slide is there now.
I'm sorry for that. We strongly believe in what we are Doing when it comes to proactively work with strengthening the safety And behaviors, and I'm convinced that we will reach our target of 0 accidents. We have proof of that From 0 months throughout the company and super low LTI months also in the company or quarters. COVID-nineteen Well established procedures and processes and our new ways of working through this pandemic, we have been 0 harm to people and care for people is not Everything we focus on, the same goes also for the environment. And now I have the technique with me.
As you know from following us, We have very low levels when it comes to emissions to air, discharges to water. Same thing as with the on the safety side. If we go even longer back, these figures are even higher when it comes to the reduction. On the water side, for instance, it's 90% reduction of discharges, the last 10 years. We are working with improving our Water treatment facilities, effective gas handling processes, high degree of Recycling process water.
We will continue to improve in these areas. And While we're doing that, we are gathering our forces around the climate challenge. And let me share some data with you, as I promised in the beginning. If we start looking At nickel, we have a graph here. The source is Wood Mackenzie, and it shows the CO2 2 emissions, the CO2 in tons per Ton produced metal, in this case, nickel then.
The Boliden staple here Consists of nickel from Kevitsa, Harjavalta, and then it's an average Figure for refinery included in that for Comparison reasons. And you can see that approximately 1 third of the global average It's the bulli denikkel. I also brought with me a couple of Zinc curves also provided to us from Wood Mackenzie. On the zinc side, We have them divided in mines and smelters. So to the left, Where we have the zinc from our 3 zinc mines, we have Garpenberg and Buliden very, very far To the left, it's almost so you can't see it.
Our Tara mine are just below the global average, And that is very much dependent on the energy mix in Ireland. Moving to the right, in that graph, We have our zinc smelters, Oda and Kokula. And Oda is it's almost invisible. It's the very tiny Blue line on 0 level and Kokola is also very low. So looking at this, where we are, If we combine this maybe on 15% of the global average, You can say that we are already world class when it comes to zinc.
But We see that we still have room for improvements. So We have put you heard from Mikael, you've heard it many times probably by now, but we have a target set, and that is to reduce our CO2 intensity by 40% until 2030. Base year 2012 till now, We have reached approximately halfway. And to ensure that we are achieving this target that we have set up, We have put the climate program in place. The most important things For the mine side is the electrification.
Energy efficiency is key for smelters. And Just let me give you some examples of what we are doing and what we have Done already. So you also see in the picture here the electric trolleys in both Aitik and Kevitsa. We have installed heat recovery units for underground ventilation in Galpembei. We have moved from oil to steam in the nickel concentrate dryer in Harjavalta.
And this year, we are also running production trials in Harjavalta and also in Ronnhofar For bio coal as reduction agents. Our R and D departments are working intensively also in this area. So there will be more to share in the future. Stefan and Daniel will also come back and give you some examples on this. Another very high priority in Boliden is, of course, our dam The purpose of ICMM It's to strengthen social and environmental performance in the industry, And we are looking forward now to be part of that, to be able to both contribute and learn from all the other members.
This is an area where we will work together with ICMM. We think that we know that we can both contribute and, And as I said, learn. And we will keep you updated on the progress around that as well. In our annual ESG disclosure. And To clarify, hopefully, how we disclose ESG, I put together this slide.
As you know, there are a lot of initiatives, a lot of standards, And more are coming in this area. We are very much looking forward to one common international standard for ESG reporting. Standard for ESG reporting. That would save us a lot of time, all of us, I think. And until then, we are reporting according to the Global Reporting Initiative, which is the most common and used standard.
We are following the 10 Global Compact Principles. Since 2019, we are also reporting according to TCFD. And now with the membership in ICMM, we will also add the ICMM principles. And we have just finalized the GAAP analysis towards Sustainability Accounting Standards Board To see what would be required from us to also comply with that standard. And talking about ESG reporting, the specific CO2 reporting, I will also go through just shortly.
In our reporting, the ESG reporting, we include the Scope 1 and Scope 2. Scope 1 is the direct emissions coming from our own mines and smelters operations. Scope 2 comes from its indirect emissions comes from the electricity that we use In our operations. And that is the common way of reporting the CO2. Then we have scope 3, and that is emissions indirect emissions outside of our control.
And that could include, for instance, the production of external raw material that we're sourcing, production of footprint for our green metals in Boliden, we also include the Scope 3. And Daniel will come back a little bit more around this when he talks about our low carbon Copper and then we have the carbon full carbon footprint calculated for that. So let me now summarize what I think is our quite bold sustainability agenda. As Mikael stated already in his introduction and I said in the beginning of my presentation, We are committed to world class sustainability performance. Today, I have focused on Health and safety on the CO2 challenge and climate program, dam safety.
When it comes to diversity biodiversity, to increase biodiversity in our regions, We support long term development of our communities and people. We secure the competences that we need for the future, and we promote Diversity. We also work with strengthening the Responsible business throughout the value chain. And I look forward to keep you updated on our progress in remaining, Also, as Mikael said, a leader in green metals to achieve the vision that we have set up. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, that opens up our first Q and A session during this Capital Markets Day. And we've got many questions. And once again, do not get discouraged if you don't get your questions right now. We will have a Q and A session at the end as well.
And, Asa, the first question comes from a U. S. Investor and it reads like this. What is the key reason why Boledon has such a good zinc CO2 footprint. What is the key reason to that?
When it comes to Our low carbon metals, I would say that we have good energy mix. We have Made investments in technology and effective processes. And we are continuously working with Following the modern technology and introducing that, We also have relatively good geology.
Okay. Yes.
Our second question comes from Daniel Major. He works for UBS. And his question is, how do you define carbon to intensity? How do you define that? CO2 intensity, how do you define that?
Thank you. The CO2 intensity and what I Showed in these graphs are the CO2 emissions in kilos or in tons per produced Metal in kilos or tons.
Got you.
And then there's another question on the CO2 target, and it's from Friedrich Nystrom. He works for Mann Capital Valtning. The first question from him is, is your CO2 emission target putting your business in line with the 1.5 degree target From the Paris agreement.
Our CO2 target is well aligned with both The Paris agreement and also the ambitions that we have within European Union.
Okay. And the follow-up from Fjerik Nystrom, M1 Capital for Walthing is, Why does Bolide not work with science based targets?
We're not doing that Now we are looking into that. And I know that there are many of our peers and Learning, so this is an area we're looking into. So we'll see. We're not doing it now.
I see. And this final question is, have you made any gap analysis to identify the gaps now when you join ICMM in English? What will be new to Boliden in this time in this perspective now when Boliden joins ICMM?
When Applying for the membership in ICMM, there's quite a thorough assessment process. So We came out quite well in that process and in that assessment. But still, there are some minor gaps that We will close during this year.
This is a question regarding the same theme, And it's from Amos Fletcher. He works for Barclays. Do the ESM, The ICMM tailing standards differ meaningfully from Boliden's current standards.
I would say that it's not such a big gap. We have already come very far When it comes to dam safety and having very high dam safety standards, It's more related to governance, I would say, those gaps that we might have now.
A question from a gentleman named Valo. And you mentioned your vision to be the most climate friendly company Quite a strong statement. What kind of KPI will you use when you measure that? And how does the journey look towards reaching that,
I think I summarized quite a lot around that in my presentation. CO2 is definitely one of the KPIs. And we are Also the most respected metal provider in the world, and we will make sure that we have relevant KPIs in place To show our progress towards our vision.
He also has a follow-up, and that is what is your ranking today? And when do you expect to be ranked as number 1 from this perspective?
There are as there are a lot of Reporting initiatives in within ESG, there are also a lot of rating institutes. And We are following the ratings, and we come out quite good in the ratings from the different We are in different rankings from the different ranking companies, But in top in most of them. And we're learning from what we read in and get in the reports. Sometimes it's just that we haven't disclosed enough information for the rating institutes you. To see our performance, so we improve by being better in our reports.
We are on top in most of the ratings, but of course, we want to be number 1 everywhere. So That's what we are. That's our ambition, and that's what we're striving for.
And here's another question from an investor who wants to be anonymous. What is coming back to your CapEx targets? What is the key measure? What is the key thing that Boliden will do to achieve this? If you were to highlight one thing, please.
For now, it's the CO2 target.
Excellent. Well, ladies and gentlemen, We have plenty more questions for Mrs. Jackson, but we will take that at the end. So we will move on. And it's a great pleasure for me to announce the next speaker, Mr.
Stefan Ronedahl, President, Boliden Mines. Welcome, Stefan.
Thank you very much, Uhlav. It's a Great. Pleasure to be here talking about the mines again. And as you can see on the headings, new opportunities to extend Our reserves, it's not just that we have been able to extend our reserves during the years. We have now also built up quite good potential when it comes to the When you come to the resource side.
And I have really interesting stuff to share with you later on. But Before I do that, let's take a look back at what's happened since last Capital Market Day. Starting with the highlights. We should have we had 3 expansion projects ongoing, and we have delivered on 2 of those 3, gap and by are up and running on 3,000,000 tonne. Kivitz, final part of last year What's up on the capacity level of 9,500,000 tonne?
Unfortunately, we haven't been able to deliver the 45,000,000 tonne pace in Aitik yet, but I will come back to Aitik later on in my presentation. Kulelati mine, We have mined the last ton in Kulelati in November last year. We have done The management team and the team in Kilauea, they have done a tremendous job to do this in the safe way. So it's all credit to them. But Now we are starting to the reclamation work in the Kilulati Mine As well as we have put the mill in LUKOIL LIGHTY on care and maintenance.
We have continued to increase our automation in more or less All of our mines, and we are building new trolley lines, for example, in Aitik. When it comes to the metal production in concentrate, we have been quite stable over the time and being both copper metal and Zinc metal, as you can see on the graph to the left, and we have gradually increased the throughput in our mills. And what has that taken us on the competitive side in the mining industry? Let's take a look on the cash cost curve, Starting with the copper cash cost curve. Here, we can see that we have been able to move Aitik towards from the 5th percentide 2010 To the better quarter on the 2020 curve.
Kevitsa wasn't in operation 2010, But they are on the 67s Prussian tile on the 2020 curve. Going over to zinc mines, We can see that we have been able to do the same kind of journey for Garpenberg and Bolivian area. Tara, unfortunately, are struggling at the wrong side of the curve with a bit of a challenge there. I will come back That later on when I talk about Tara Deep. But what have what's make us So good to actually move the operations towards the left side of the curve to the right side.
What's the base for that? And I think it's a combination of things. First of all, I think the expansion projects that we have Running have been a great success. As well as we have really good organization teams On all sites, working hard every day. But also, we have had a really good exploration Team.
And the exploration that we have done in these areas have been very, very successful. So let's take a look On the exploration, we are focusing on the areas where we do have our existing operations, Those in Finland, Sweden and Ireland, and these have been a success for us for a very long time. We Sure. If you're already in Norway, it's such an example as well as Buchanan in Newfoundland in Canada. But on this slide, I think the most important part is down to the last, the diagram.
The light blue is the reserve life, And the thing here is that we have been able to double the production in Aitik and Gappenberg. But at the same time, we have been able to extend the reserve life. And now both of those operations have a reserve life of 30 years. I think that's a quite Impressive work. When it comes to Kvitsa, they have a reserve life of 13 years.
And then we have Our challenges, that's Bulunari and Tara. But as you can see on the curve, we have been able to keep the Same level of reserve life since 2010 to 2020. And we I've done that by mining a year and then add on another year when it comes to the reserve. And in Tara, in case of Tara, I've actually been doing a bit better than that. But the exciting thing here now is that we have good potential around our resources In both Bolivian area and Tara.
And let's start to talk about Bolivian area and rail leaden project. The rail Eden resource is now up to 8,400,000 tonne. It's very close to the existing Tricina Bayou mine. We will include the rare lead mineralization into Krissi Neberg. That will strengthen the life of mine plans for Tricino Bay as well for the combined life of mine plans for Bolivar area.
And it will actually bring Bolivar area into the next decade. So this is very good news. But we're still pending Board decision around this. We expect that Board decision to come in the Q2 this year. When we have got that decision, we see that we should be able to get up to Full utilization of the Boliden Mill in 2024.
And on the picture to the right, You can see the Kristinberg mine, and you also see the position of the ore body in And the red line in between is actually a possible solution for electrified Trolley drift for transportation of the ore from both Rarely, but also can be used for Kristineberg. As you know, Kristineberg has a quite high OpEx, basically based on that, we have long Distance to transport the ore. So this will strengthen the Kristina Bay life of mine plan With a big jump there. So we really look forward to that. But Maybe the most exciting thing for Bolion area today is the new discovery of Stromfoss.
And this is really, really interesting now, I would say, because if you look at the 2 point 6,000,000 tonne or 2,690,000 tonne is not that big yet. But you should remember that the first Intersection hole was drilled in November 'nineteen. And then we have been focusing on strong force And have that high on the prioritization. We have increased the pace in every part of the exploration work. And during 2020, we was able to get up to 42 holes with 26,000 meters of drilling.
And the calculation, resource calculation is really fresh. It's less than 2 weeks old. So this is really new. And as you can see, it's polymetallic Content here, so we have several base metals and gold and silver, for example, And it will be a high value per ton. But we also have some contents of arsenic, Antimon and mercury.
So we are looking into different kind of process to really We're able to make a good concentrate of this going forward. But this is, as I said, in a very early stage, and it's very We will continue to have a high pace when we come to the exploration in Stornfoss. Another thing with Stronfoss is that its location is located just 4 kilometers from the mill In Bolivar area, and as Mikael mentioned in the beginning, we have a quite long history. And there was where the company was founded in 1920 So 4 kilometers from home, I would say, we find this new exciting mineralization. And it's still, of course, open in several directions, and that's make it so Promising and with a great potential going forward.
So this is, for me, At least very interesting and exciting things to work with. If we Make it 10 times bigger to 26,000,000 tonne, we come into tar deep because that's The number that the resources at tar deep for the moment. And if you look at the graph to the right side of the picture, I can see that we have taken it from 10,000,000 tonne to 26,000,000 tonne over a 5 year period. And I hope you realize what an achievement that is. It's a brilliant job done by the exploration team Around Tara.
And the reason for why saying that is that it's in of 1500 meters deep depth, and all the drilling that these This calculation are based on our drill from surface. We have started the first drilling from the Exploration drift, but we haven't got any results from that yet. So I think that they have done an absolutely fantastic job with this. And if we relate the 26,000,000 ton level to the existing production we had in Tara, it's about 10 year Production. I think it's very important for us now to be able to grow this even further.
And let's say that we should be able to double it. Then I want to go back to the cash cost curve that I was talking When Tara was struggling on the wrong side of the curve. This can be a real good potential for us To move Tara to the right to the left side of the curve or to the right side of the curve, however you want to put it. So this is very exciting as well. And mentioning Bolionario and Tara here is where we have had the challenge with R and R, But we can see possible things coming up here now on the resource side that is very, Very interesting.
And that also gets us to the strategy around Tara Deep because it's Very important that we will be able to bridge the old tar production into the new tar deep. And I think that we are quite committed to do that. And as If we can continue mining Tara as long as possible, give us more time to actually move Tara Towards the left of the curve. So this is good things, I would say. And as you can see also, The resources have increased in grades when it comes to zinc.
That's also a good thing. If we I believe the exploration going into production, starting with Aitik, we can say that We haven't reached the 45,000,000 tonne pace, as I said in the beginning. We had some challenging last year, Both Mikkel and also have talked about the COVID situation, and it's like that for everybody, I guess. And do have had some influences from that on the production in Aitik. But we have also some Other issues last year, we had some issues with the availability of shovels as well as trucks.
We are working on that, of course. And we also had some challenges with water management from the bottom of the pit, It's actually around winter condition. And the reason for that is we are taking out the final Just in the bottom of the pit, and we have a quite high water pressure there. And that, in combination With winter climate, make it a bit difficult. But as I mentioned in the beginning, We are driving to get to 45,000,000 tonne as quick as we can do that.
We have been, for several years now, been mining over the reserve average grade in And now it's time actually that we will come into a period of time where we will mine beneath the average reserve grades. For how long time? Yes, it will be several years, as I mentioned, on the slide here. And if you want to be more It's a 6 to 8 year period. That's the range.
And of course, we are working with the plans All the time to improve them, but that's how it's look like today. When it comes to efficiency, It's very important for IT when it comes to the electrification, not just for efficiency thing, of course, but also for the CO2 reduction like Asa Up to 1600 meters, and we will continue to build. And the goal today So to have 3.8 kilometer throttle line in a year or 2 from now. Around this, but hopefully, we will get this in the Q2. And then we will gradually implement Autonomous Holley System in Aitik, and that will help Aitik with the productivity going forward.
When it comes to Likavore, Likavore is a satellite pit that's included into our today mining plans. We have had we will have the first say from the environmental court in the end of next month. So It could be good to have the eyes on that, and hopefully, we will get the possibility to mine Lekavar. It's Lekavar is placed just 3 kilometers from the main Aitik crusher, So it will be a very low CapEx involved in open up and drive Likavar. And We will use equipment from Aitik.
When it come to major permit renewal 2024, Here, we have done a really extensive work, I would say, with an application, and we will put this application into the authorities This year, and then it will take a few years to get this approval, but we needed 2024 to be able to continue. And normally, it's a 10 year in between The renewals that we need to do. So it's good to let you know that, that's in process.
If we
go to the next expansion operation, Garpenbeg, I mentioned that they are delivering on 303,000,000 tonne, And it's they have a stable production, so they are doing really well. We do think that the gap and buy have an extra gear, But the production permit is 3,000,000 tons. We can't mine more than that now. But with the efficiency project that we have in our pipeline in Japenbei, we can see that we should be able To use the existing operation with a very limited CapEx to get up to An increase of 10 percent to 3,300,000 tonne in the 2 to 3 next coming years. But that's also pending, of course, an approval of this new production permit level.
The application for That was put into the authorities last year, and hopefully, we get this new permit Approved this year. Looking at the graph to the right, you can see that we have Increased automation when it comes to drilling, and that's also get other consequences That we have increased the quality of the holes, so it's not that much we're drilling any longer. So all the curves just going in the right directions. Leaving Gjaponberg, going into Kevitsa. Kevitsa was up running on 9,500,000 which is designed capacity the last 6 months last year.
And so they have delivered the expansion project In a good way, and now we are looking to stabilize the production. And I think the operation in Kevitsa needs that, But we will also work with improvements, of course. Electrification is one of them. We will build Trolley lines as they have in Aitik, we will continue to do that with a start this year. It was the plan was actually to do it last year, But we pushed that a bit ahead based on the corona situation.
So But that will come. And the potential in Stage 5 is there, of course, but we are working with the Evaluation of this pushback. Before I come into my last Slide, I just want to remind you about the permits that is pending for us. I You have a mansion, it's Lekavar, breaking now, first instance decision, and next month. We have the major permit, 2024, gap and by production level.
Hopefully, we get this this year, and Then we can increase production, as I mentioned. And then we have the bullion area. Application to change existing environmental permit For Kristinbai to include rail leaden into that, and we will put that application in this year. When it comes to lava, this is a big disappointment. Michael already mentioned this, but We had it for judicial review of the government decision.
We think that it was a wrong decision, of course, and that We should have Nativa 2000 permit before we got the mining concession. That's it's not that can't be right in a way. So this is important for us, but it is also important for the mining industry in Sweden, I will say. So We will keep larva in our portfolio because we will mine it sooner or later. Now we're coming into the last slide, the summary.
Key success factors to drive further performance. We will focus on safe and stable production. We will continue with the Efficiency programs when it comes to optimization and electrification. And this is from the production When it comes to, to oh, sorry, social and legalize The stop rate is a sustainability part. I think this is an area where we need to work on several levels.
You. We are a European mining company today, and this is very important to work on the European level, national level and the local level. So social and legal license to operate will be important. We'll So putting money into the research and development of waste management As well as reclamation techniques, this is this we are doing now. We think that that's also a very important area.
And of course, we have to follow our activity plan when it comes to reduce Our CO2 emissions, and that's in all our business units. And then The final point, exploration. We will continue with this success story that the exploration team for us have bring to us For several years. And we have been really successful, I will say, to work with it in a way That's bringing value to the company. We will continue to that, and we will continue to develop our strategy around your new companies as well as Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Gentlemen, that opens up our Q and A session for mines. And we have, as always, plenty of questions here. And the first question comes from Denmark, from Mrs. Muller at birth.
And the company the question goes like this. The Strom force, what does Boliden actually expect to find and which amounts? Can you please tell us How big do you expect this to be?
Of course, I can't tell you that because I don't know. What I do know is that this is a very early exploration project, But we have put in a lot of efforts to make it grow as quick as possible. And I think it's Very interesting because if you're talking about geologists and you know that it's just on the other side of the road from the Old Boliden ore body, why haven't we find it before? The reason is that the geologists have been very successful with bringing In old history together with the new physics, and they have challenged the way we was looking for mineralization in the And we have actually signed this in the surrounding that we normally don't look into. So this open up even further opportunities around Boliden as such, even if we have been And explore for the last 96 years.
So but I can't tell you, say, how big this will be. I have no But it's open in several directions. Got you.
Next question comes from Luke Nelson. He works for JPMorgan. And The question is regarding Rhevladen. And the question goes like this. Is this just a brownfield project to main production at your Kristineberg Boled in the area, that's the first question.
In my eyes, it is in a way because it's very close to the original Krusineberg Mine, and it will be Linz in Krusene Bio mine going forward.
And his follow-up is then, does this project potentially incorporate an increase in throughput and profitability?
Yes, it gave us opportunity to utilize the Bolide Mill fully, as I mentioned In the slides here. And that's great for the bullion area, of course. That will strengthen the view of The mining, the bullion area as a unit. And it will bring us into the next decade, as mentioned.
Okay. Then we move to Aitik and Tara, and it's a question from Gustaf Schwerin. He works for Handelsbanken Capital Markets. And The question goes, the production issues that you announced yesterday for Aitik and Tara, the technical issues, do you expect anything to spill over into Q2? And how for how
Yes. When it comes to the problems with the mill in Aitik as well as This is the main in Tara. We are not up and running yet, but we know how to handle it. So we will, As soon as possible, get into operation again, of course. But the exact date for that, I can't tell you.
We stay at Aitik, and we have a question from Liam Fitzpatzrik. He works for Deutsche Bank. What will lower grades and lower gold grades do to Aitik costs On the metal grades, do you see a link between those 2?
No, it's not really in a way. I mean, Remind the ore tonnage and the waste tonnage, and we put ore through the mill, and the cost is based on the production, More or less. Of course, the RIA gains will be a bit less, maybe. But that's small In comparison to the full scale of the cost in Aitik. Okay.
Then we move back to the Boliden area. And it's a question from a gentleman called Joe Storey. He works for Millennium Capital based in the U. K. And the question goes,
regarding Ravliden and the Ravliden permitting process, what kind of key hurdles From here, do you see? Is this a done deal, so to say?
Yes. I expect that we will get the permits for Airline, and it It will be much easier when we expand the permit for Triste in the Bay than go for just the permit for rail leader. So that's why we are including rare lithium into the Kristina Bay Life of mine, as a mine. So this is a part of that. But and we expect that, that will be a much easier Road ahead of us then to make a separate permit application for just the rarebilling project.
Okay. Coming back to Tara, Tara Deep this time. It's Oscar Lindstrom working For Danske Bank, when will you be ready for an investment decision regarding Tara Deep?
We will work as much as possible to increase the resources. And our plan today is that we will have material for a board decision In 2024, that's our objective here now. But I think that You can learn from the marshmallow story. The kits, 1 marshmallow, you can take it direct, you can wait, and then you get 2 marshmallows. And we're absolutely thrilled To wait until we get this 1 much mallows to grow to 2.
So I think that if we we'll be able to extend Tara By time, then we should utilize that to don't reduce the value of tar deep.
Okay. Coming back to Stremforce, Karl Storvik working for Sentra Invest in Norway. Is the content of mercury and antimony in Strenthorse a potential asset? Or is it an environmental challenge? Is it something good or bad?
I would say it's an environmental challenge, but we do have quite High level of this in the historical Bolide mine, and we are into this how to process this. So we are putting in Efforts today, which is very early, to know how to process this in the best way. But of course, That kind of content is a challenge from a mental point of view. But we have treated that kind of material since before as well.
Now it's time for Janis Matsvollas working for Morgan Stanley. Regarding Aitik and the Aitik grade for poor profile, How would it change if you get a permit for Likavara?
Likavara will be in production from 'twenty four onwards, Meaning that it will, of course, affect us when it comes to the grades in Aitik in a negative way if we don't get Permit for leak of our production. But mainly, that will hit 20 site, 26, as we can see the plans today. And then we will get into high grades when we come down with the pushbacks. So leak evar will not be a thing That will take away our legs, if I say so. But of course, it's important that we can keep The low grade years, not that low that it should be without Likavarra.
Janis has a follow-up. Regarding Likavarra, what will be the potential CapEx
The decision to go fully It have been made by the board, but of course, it's pending the environmental permit for Ligador. And the level of CapEx is based on how much waste rock we will take away. So it's not it will not be CapEx for buying a lot of machinery or putting a lot of infrastructure. It will be Regarding waste production like we do in the normal case.
Excellent. We're back to Aitik again. Seems to be a popular mine in terms of questions. We have other mines as well. We might remind It's a fantastic mine, and we have many fantastic questions.
Here's one from Luke Nelson again, JPMorgan. Aitik, are the efficiency projects that you mentioned in your speech enough to maintain the mine's It's relative cost competitiveness on the cost curve that you showed.
Yes, I think it is. When it comes to HS, it will be something new for us, but I think it will be important by time to build it into the normal operation. And the electrification, we have talked about, and that will also bring in efficiency to the operation. So yes, I think that we will be able to keep our position on the cash cost curve. Just If we look at that side of the car, then it's other things that affect in the cash cost curve, of course, that not
Okay. We have several questions here coming in all the time. Thank you very much for that. Please once again do not get discouraged if you don't get your questions answered right now. We will have a Q and A session at the end of our presentation We're at the end of our CMD day, I should say.
I think we have time for 2 more questions at this stage. And the first one comes From a gentleman called Daniel Vist. He works for a company called Kros Invest S. A. In Switzerland.
And the question is, And it comes back to Stremforz. What would be a potential time frame from first ore from Stremforz In English, when do you think this will be a mine that is
up and running? It's impossible To say anything about that, I mean, back to the Majvela story, we need to build the resources So we know that when we are putting in the CapEx, we are doing it for the right size of operation. And we are far from that point yet. So I have to pass that. I have no clue where we'll be able to have up running a mine.
But I mean, The mill in Bolin is there, so it's a very easy transportation. And we are looking into how we It should be possible develop this at the same time as we are pushing the exploration. So of course, I always want to know that, but I can't answer the question today, actually.
But maybe we can help this gentleman a little bit. Let's say that this would be a normal mineralization. What's the time Frame before you find it until you actually get, the mine up and running. You said that everything works out perfectly fine.
But sorry, There are no normal mineralizations. All mineralization is very different in many cases. And of course, we will have a period of time. If you look at A normal exploration case, if I say so, it's normally 10 years before it start to become a project. And now we are 1 year into from the first intersection.
So this is a very early stage When it comes to exploration project, but it's very interesting. And of course, it will help the Bolivian area when we are there. But We have we can be patient when it comes to time here because and the investments around this, because if we can fill up The mill in Bolivian with the improved life of mine plan in Krusinerberg and get Bolivian area To the next decade, we don't need to be hard with this too much.
Excellent. Then the final question At this stage, and it's from Goljatinder. He works for Exane BNP Paribas based in London. And the question goes like this. Based on current mine Plants and projects pipeline, do you see 2025 group production for zinc and copper higher, Lower or stable versus 2020?
I think the zinc will be a bit higher, the copper will be a bit lower.
Excellent. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to move forward during our Capital Markets Day. And what will Happened next is that we are soon ready to have a short break, but please stay tuned. After The break at 2 o'clock sharp. We will have a 7 minute video, and it's something extra.
It's a virtual tour of our And many of us would have been on a plane tonight on the way to see this plant. Instead, we made this movie so that you can get a walk Within the smelter, but not only that, you will also experience the history of the Hagiawalta plan And more importantly, how it fits into our overall plan, metals for modern life. Please stay tuned. And At 2 o'clock sharp, we will continue with Mr. Peltinen, President,
On a cold morning like this, in a northern city like this, people do what people do, In buses or cars, cafeterias or offices, if you look closely, you'll see a unified movement, A forward motion that upholds, drives and develops. To facilitate all this, we need building blocks, Materials developed and refined over millennia. Just imagine a world without electrical circuits, vehicles, lighting. Those building blocks all start here, in the Earth. But it's a long way from the ground to a smartphone or a car battery.
Take copper, for instance, A distinctive metal used for its electrical and heat conductive properties in everything from healthcare equipment to cars, from plumbing to communications. This is where nearly a 1000000 tonnes of concentrates travel every year from both foreign and domestic mines. This unassuming sand like raw material will soon be refined into something more noble, namely Copper, nickel, gold, and silver, as well as other byproducts. The roots of Bulid and Harjavalda date back to the discovery of Otokumpu ore body in 1910. In the 1930s, a copper smelter was commissioned in Imatra.
The smelter was moved to its current location in Maria Vallta during the 2nd World War. It was in these times of energy shortage that the flash smelting method was developed here in Harjavalta. The company became a part of the Borledon Group in 2004 and has since been further advancing the flash smelting method As it is one of the cornerstones in making this plant effective, energy efficient and ecological. The flash smelting method has been regarded as one of the most significant metallurgic inventions in history and has been awarded the ASM, The historical landmark award. The concentrate is melted To 1300 degrees C, then using the flash smelting method, tapped into large labels.
This It's the first step in the copper refining process. The slag from the flash smelting process is cooled and crushed. Valuable metals still present in the slag are collected into froth flotation cells at the slag concentrator. The high recovery of these valuable metals is a fundamental part of the operations. Here, practically nothing goes to waste.
The molten copper The anode furnace treatment, copper is cast into anodes of approximately 99% copper. Casting It's highly automated, and the weighing of cast anodes is very accurate. The copper anodes are transported to the copper refinery in nearby Pore, where the copper is electrochemically purified from the anodes, Resulting in this pure copper cathode. Precious metals such as silver and gold descend to the bottom of the Tanker sells and are collected for further processing. Finally, precious metals are refined, silver as grains and gold as bars.
Lastly, the metals are shipped to customers around the globe for further processing. Nickel is refined in much the same way as copper. The nickel smelter at Harjavalta is unique. It is the only nickel smelter in Western Europe, and it produces high grade matte in a single stage with the best and latest technology. The Smelting of copper and nickel concentrates generates gases containing sulfur.
Collecting these gases is imperative for The environment. Sulfur gases are harnessed on-site in Haryavarta, processed into some of the most widely Used industrial chemicals and sold to customers as sulfuric products. Again, nothing should go to waste. This Even applies to the heat from the smelting process, which is reused on-site and for district heating in the surrounding community. Not all raw materials processed here come from mines either.
Some have already been in use in electrical components, batteries, Jewelry, recycled metals are brought here to be smelted and put to use again. It's this idea of a circular process, The recycling and recovery of metals, gases, and energy that is a foundation for the operations here, to not only be energy efficient and economically sound, but to care for the one thing we are all so dependent on. That is why every process at Gallied and Haryavanta is closely monitored. Specialists work full time in collecting and analyzing samples From all stages of the processes. Samples are also taken from the surrounding environment to continually ensure clean and eco friendly practices.
The environmental goals Buried and Harjavalta has laid out are stricter and more ambitious than the requirements set By the Finnish legislation. All of this wouldn't be possible without the approximately 500 casting, operating, monitoring, analyzing, developing. The same care and attention to detail That goes into everyday operations here, goes into the health and safety of the workers. At the core of everything is the idea of Constant development and a passion for improvement, encompassing all activities, technology, safety, and environmental Sustainability. This makes Borliden Horjavalta one of the most progressive plants of its kind in the world, and it extensively uses techniques that are on the BAT, the best available techniques list of the European Union.
As we move forward and the motion of what we call civilization persists and accelerates, the need for high Building blocks is more important than ever. It is here Bull Raiden Haryavalta stands as an essential link in the complex Between the ground and this.
Ladies and gentlemen, a warm Welcome back to Boliden's 2021 Capital Markets Day. My name is Olof Gjermark, and I'm Head of Investor Relations. We will continue with presentations By our President of the Smelters Operations, Mr. Peltinen, we will continue with presentation by our CFO, And it's a pleasure
to have you here, Daniel. Most welcome. Thank you very much, Olof. It's a pleasure being And, well, regarding the movie, this is actually where we would have liked to invite you tomorrow if circumstances would have allowed But that is not possible at this moment. Harjavalta is a fantastic site with a long History that we have learned, not the least by this video here, producing copper, nickel, gold and silver in Great and fantastic qualities.
The installations are great, recoveries are high and profitability has really been good For quite some time now. And on top of all, we have really excellent and skilled people doing a great job at this site. And regarding our strategy, I certainly believe that Harjavalta is contributing to this and we have actually a Competitive edge that I am going to tell you about today here. But first, Maybe we should look a little bit back what's been done during the last 2 years here. And well, some highlights since the Since the Capital Markets Day in 2019, we see in the diagram here regarding feed volumes that our Debottlenecking investments have brought fruit and we are slowly increasing our feed volumes.
And Well, both in the copper smelter specifically, we have been debottlenecking the copper feed, and it has Been successful. Today, I will talk a little bit more also about this nickel expansion that We'll come on stream with them in the Q3 this year. Regarding Renschaden again, We have a couple of greater things ongoing there, and that's about the leaching plant. I will come back to that also together With the deep repository, but on top of that, we have had some successful debottlenecking investments also ongoing That is our smallest plant site, which is situated in the southern part of Sweden. There we have invested in a plastic separation that those there we were a little bit unlucky in the beginning.
There was a fire that destroyed The site now it's been, however, up and running for 1.5 years and it is performing in a very good way and we are satisfied And with that investment, one part here about our strategy is the thing with complex raw material. And I will go a little bit more into what this is all about. But really looking at the 3 metals part here The last 5 years in the trend we also see that we've been successful in increasing the value of That part. And one could ask, what about this? What is this thing with the complex raw material?
Well, Of course, this is something that is increasing the profitability and improving our raw material Margins and looking at the trend here at the top right, we can see that this has been ongoing for a longer time and The gross profit development just compared to last year has been with more than SEK 1,000,000,000 and this is mainly Due to this free metal addition. But regarding the complex raw material, what is that? We heard From, Stefan here earlier that it might contain, like, mercury and arsenic and antimony, by the way. And This is, of course, something that one need to be very careful with. But it might also be that we have another level of humidity or that Concentrate might be coarse or very fine particles, and that makes it difficult to handle.
And this is what we need to ensure that the handling capacity capability is top of the line and also maintaining Good recovery levels while treating this. So just a small sketch here regarding the complex raw material. Well, I would like to say that the TC, the treatment costs of this kind of material is generally more stable. We can avoid the spot TCs. We have These are on benchmark levels.
And on top of that, we get the free metals and paid for some penalties also Due to this, the difficulty here that comes up is also that the costs normally increase when you go into This complex raw material, and that is what we need to master to be able to get the you. So how do we intend to materialize more about this? Well, I promised to tell a little bit about this Rundshall Leach plant, which is an investment that's been ongoing now and we have come very You see the picture here of a, well, fantastic indoors. This is for an engineer, a Great view to see shiny equipment inside a plant before starting up actually. So this plant is About extracting additional value from intermediates in this case.
And we will get out about 25 1,000 tons of lead sulfates. From these 25,000 tons, we will treat about 20% internally and 80% All the lead sulfides will be sold externally. And well, what more comes out, this it comes still an additional 5,000 tons of copper and zinc sulfates out. And these we will treat 100% The intention is also to diminish and decrease the volumes that should go into this unique underground repository. And By treating the intermediates in this way, we can reduce the volume with up to 80% and This is great actually.
And well, the CapEx of the investment has been about 750,000,000 and We are going spot on here. So commissioning the plant at this moment and starting it Slowly, but the first volumes has already got come into the process. There is then, of course, different parts that need to be timed together And get the process into running smoothly. I would guess that there is some job for the skilled In the Rancher plant to get this up and running in a very good way. Another investment that we have Ongoing actually is the nickel expansion in Harjavalta.
This is an investment that we came out with, I think it was last August, about increasing the capacity from 310,000 The feed capacity from 310,000 to 370,000 tons and at the same time the intention is to lower the CO2 Intensity by up to 20%. This we are doing by changing the concentrate dryer, which is today Fossil fuel fired, and we will utilize the waste heat that we have on the site and dry the concentrate in that way. We will also improve the automation level at this site by introducing automatic metal tapping, Which is creating a total different working environment for the operators at the site. We will also widen The raw material flexibility in the site and that is, of course, important also thinking about our strategy In the smelters, we have a CapEx level of about €40,000,000 and commissioning in the Q3. And this is Also very well coordinated together with the general maintenance needs at the site.
And we will be spending still for Some 60 days plus for really doing this. And this goes very well in line with the nickel strategy that was started up in 2015 In the smelter part here. All right. A lot of focus on the CO2 part. As I've been talking about it.
I've been mentioning it here, and I will go a little bit more deep into this since we have been studying the CO2 emissions and our On CO2 footprint, carbon footprint for some time now, very, very focused. And By that, I would like to go into this green metals part and talking about the low carbon copper. And I I'd like to say that, well, talking about green metal should fit very well also, thinking about the St. Patrick's Day that we are celebrating today. Well, what is green metal or what is low carbon copper?
Well, it is actually quite simple. It is Carbon with a low carbon or copper with a low carbon footprint. And in our case, we have And verifying this extensively by a third party to really get the facts up here. So We are producing this low carbon copper with concentrates coming from our own mines, And we also do it by from recycled copper. And also mentioned about the scopes here, the scope 1, 2, 3, We are actually including all significant emission categories from, well, you could say from cradle to gate In here, so we are rather including and excluding sources of CO2.
So and looking at Global average, we think that we are quite well positioned compared to the global average That we find we are International Copper Association. So we have come out with a level of 1.5
Kilo.
So what about this? Well, how could we benefit from this? Well, that is our intention to lead this race. And actually, we are launching The very first low carbon copper, and it is available. And actually already now about 25% of our Capacity is already contracted.
We have about 120,000 tons of capacity of low carbon copper And we have an additional 50,000 tons with recycled copper coming out here. And of course, Our customers are keen on this. This has shown very good, well, curiosity from them and We have some cooperation already started with companies, you can see on this slide. First volumes are also delivered and we see that we can now say that we have the low carbon copper with less than 1.5 Kilogram CO2 per kilogram copper and also to recycle the copper with the same level here. So I would say that this is really great news that we can come out with.
So if this is copper, of course, also mentioned and talked about zinc. And We are of course following this very close and actually another interesting topic that will for sure Bring out some questions later on is the project that we have ongoing in our Oda site, and that is the Green Sink Oda 4.0 we call it. And why that? Okay. Of course, it is due to having a fantastic good The environmental credentials for that site and also the possible investment revamp, and We are talking about would lift the automation level to a completely different level.
The site, which is a fantastic site, really situated within the fjord, in the Hardanger in Norway, you see it in the picture. Sun is always shining, by the way, in Norway, at least looking at the pictures. We have really a strong industrial logic behind this because adding about 150,000 tons more With very limited amount of extra people at the site gives economies of scale. We have already fantastic Logistic setup for that site, energy efficiency will increase always when you can Really adapt the process accordingly. You can, as an engineer, get out what you Mainly one from it.
And the automation and digitalization level will bring will be brought up to a total different level. And Here we also have this support from the Enova organization in Norway with a significant support in the project When and if it materializes. Another thing that we don't have in the process today is the lead and silver recovery. And this is of course something that would be implemented also in this possible revamp of the site. So strong environmental credentials I mentioned here.
Well, the CO2 footprint, it was barely notable in the slides that you saw From OSA and everything is based on hydroelectric power. And on top of that, we have the sustainable waste handling that Has been actually there since the mid-80s. What we are doing now is really, well, looking into this Financial part, what kind of CapEx level would this be? And internally in Bullieden, we of course need to get up with Calculation that this above Buliden targets before possibly moving forward with this and well, the level It is comparable to Boliden's largest historical CapEx projects. Why Aren't we moving on then?
What's hindering us? Well, there are some issues here. Of course, when going in And possibly investing such an amount in this site, we ask for a longer permit commitment. We see the mountain caverns In the picture here and that has been extended since the mid-80s now and they have Been done like 1 or a couple of times at a time. And now we ask for a longer commitment for really being able In the event that we will end, we will leave the site, how will it We see that long term cash flow would be coming up to a totally different level, moving the cost Well, not the best really to be state of the art, and this is something that we strongly believe in We are excited about the possibility.
Let's see what happens During the spring and summer, if we get the calculation together and can present an interesting case. Moving forward with this presentation actually, coming to an end here, I I would like to summarize this whole thing. I've been talking about the complex raw material and the strategy that we have Which is really improving the raw material margin, and we have a strong trade Track record with improved margins and also good profitability in the smelter side. By going into this Complex raw material, that means also that we have to maintain high production efficiency, and that we can do. I think we have a small benefit or maybe a large benefit within Boliden since we have different sites And we have learned to utilize the different intermediates between the sites so that we really improve recoveries And get this on a really high end and sustainable level.
And talking about sustainability, well, We are into lowering our CO2 intensity and it looks pretty good, I would say. And on top of that, we also have this fantastic and unique opportunity in Rensa with the deep repository, We really can squeeze out the valuables of our intermediates and in the end Lower the volume and get that done into the repository and really stored in a safe way for So coming out and the last part here, the bullet and green I've said today that we are launching now the bullet and low carbon copper, and we are verifying Very carefully now the other volumes about the green zinc. We will have the nickel part there and so on. So I would say, really, when concluding this whole story, I'm proud about the strategy that we have built up. It is very strong.
And on top of it, we are really focusing towards this bullion overall vision to be the most climate friendly We have accomplished and the road that we have set up ahead of us. So thank you so much for this. And Yes.
Thank you very much, Mr. Peltonen. Ladies and gentlemen, that opens up our Q and A session for Daniel Daniel, it's almost like you only talked about one thing. If you could imagine all the questions I've got regarding green copper here and green metal, I don't even know where to start almost, but I think there are like 10 different questions on the same subject. But let me choose 1.
Let me pick 1. Cherry, pick 1. And then it's Tyler Broda from Royal Bank of Canada. And he says, does the new low copper carbon achieve any price
Absolutely, we will have a small premium in there in the beginning. This is in the end something that we would like Market to set, but it will include a small premium already in the beginning. Then we know that the margins are small and this is something that It will be tailored in the end to fit, but it is so that we have an advantage and we would like to get some out of it also. The The second question on
the same theme comes from Gustaf Schreinwerke working for Handelsbanken. And he asks, do you see any willingness for
But when launching this and also when talking about with together with our suppliers to our industry, There is something kind of boiling in the whole system with everybody's wish to lower their carbon footprint. And Our metals are there really as an important part in the transition towards a green society. And of course, There is great interest for this. And if then our metals are even better than the general Level that you can get in the market, of course, that is something that benefits everyone.
We also got another question here. Which third You did very well apply this low carbon copper. And did you have different third parties to choose from? We have utilized
Intertek for verifying this, and we will actually come out with Package, how about this? This has been done really by the book in all sense, say, ways and therefore we have also waited to come out with this
Okay. I think we have one more question then, and then we'll come back at the end for the overall at the overall Q and A session for Questions for you regarding smelters, but we have more questions regarding the low carbon copper, as I said, but we also have several other questions. One is regarding here is regarding Oda, Oda 4.0. And it's from Johannes Grunselius working for Kepler Cheuvreux in Stockholm. When could Oda 4.0 be ready for an investment decision?
Please specify. And You're mentioning project support. Is it only environmental decisions that you're waiting for?
All the other parts that we have and we have permits also already, it's just to verify this This mountain cavern park here. But time wise, we are now specifying the cost situation and have Gone out with request for quotations and gathering this at this very moment in the spring. Of course, we have been hindering Due to the COVID situation, I'm not able to travel into the country, and that is, well, slowing down the process since everything is done More or less in online, so to say, via Teams. But we are Together this now and being ready within shortly to come out with the levels.
Thank you very much for that. And we will be back Regarding this subject and other subjects moving on. It's time for me to introduce our Next speaker, it is our CFO, Hakan Gabilsson. Hakan, you're most welcome.
Thank you and Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be here. Let's move to the right slide here. I will talk about 3 things today. Firstly, I will talk about Our performance and our position.
I will then move on to some little bit more detailed information that I hope will be useful for those of you that are modeling our quarterly results. And then towards the end, I will talk a bit and try to add some flavor to how we think about CapEx. As you know, CapEx is an important way To create value and to develop the company. It is a pleasure to look back at 2020, which was a year where we improved The profits, we improved the cash flow despite all the challenges that we saw in the year. EBIT Improved to SEK8.4 billion.
And I'm, of course, proud and happy of the performance that we've seen in our mines and our smelters. This was also a year where we strengthened the company. We increased the capacity to higher mill volume in 3 of our key mines In Kevitsa, Aitik and Garpenberg. We also increased the capacity for copper smelting in our Heijerwalta smelter. We increased our capabilities to treat complex raw materials, which has a significant impact on the P and L.
We also improved the process stability in our smelting division. I'm also happy about the cost control that we saw during the year. We had Limited cost increases in spite of the expansions that we carried through. And finally, this was a year when I think that our metals portfolio Showed its strength in the form of stronger prices. We enjoyed good prices through the year.
It came down a bit Immediately following the start of the COVID pandemic, but we saw a really strong recovery during the second half of the year. And that is important for the changes that are happening in today's society. It's well balanced. We have a biggest exposure to copper, To zinc, but also sizable exposure to precious metals, as you can see in this chart, and to treatment charges in our smelters. It's a low risk portfolio.
We have a lot of negative correlations in our commodity mix that limits the volatility of our results. We often talk about the negative correlation in the results between metal and metals and currencies. There is also often a negative correlation in the Correlation in the earnings between smelters and mines and also between base metals and precious metals. And in that context, it's also important to know that we have not streamed any precious metals, so we keep the full exposure In there. So all in all, it's a low risk portfolio with metals that play an important role in the transition that we're Seeing in today's society, and I'm confident that it's a portfolio that will continue to generate good returns going forward.
Now I will now go into a little bit more details that I hope will be of use for modeling the company Performance. 1st, EBIT sensitivity by business area. In each quarterly report, we published the sensitivity that meaning How much does a 10% change in the commodity price influence our EBIT? From time to time, we also Disclose the same table by business area, and that's what you see here. Now I'm not going to go through every line and every number in this table.
It's here for reference. There are a couple of points I would like to make. The first one, looking at the total group exposure, is that Adding all the precious metals together, it actually gets the same level of exposure as we have towards zinc and copper. So it's an important part of our business Secondly, if we look into the smelter column, I think that is a good illustration of how the profits are built up in the smelting division. You see a big exposure towards zinc and zinc TCs where zinc TCs is the most important one.
That's typical of our zinc smelters where most of the revenues are depending on the treatment charges and then a smaller part From or depending on zinc free metals. That is quite different from the way it looks in our copper smelters where On precious metal, free metals, precious metals and copper. Another area I would like to go into a little bit more detail in is provisional pricing. And the reason I bring this up is that in periods of Higher volatility in metal prices, it's easy to underestimate the impact on the income statement. First of all, mines and smelters operate On slink principles with standard commercial terms, and that means that the concentrate sales from mines is priced Based on a provisional pricing model.
Now the way this works is that when mines produce and deliver the concentrates, Issue a preliminary invoice with provisional prices and record out. The final prices are fixed only 1 to 4 months later, and that varies by metal. I'll come back to that. And in the meantime, in the time between there, the open positions are revalued each month end to reflect actual market prices. And as you can see in the chart to the left, the final prices of copper Zinc and lead are set 1 month after the material has arrived at the smelter with average prices 1 month after.
Gold and silver, 2 months nickel and cobalt, 3 months and palladium and platinum, 4 months. When the final prices are fixed, the values are hedged in our smelting division. That means that we have no more price exposure As a group, we've locked in the prices while they are being refined in the smelting side. Now that has this has a few consequences. If you take nickel and platinum palladium as examples, each Quarterly closing, there will be several months' worth of deliveries with open positions that are revalued to actual prices.
It also means that in any given quarter, the deliveries of nickel, platinum and palladium done in that quarter will all be valued in the income statements Based on the prices at the last day on the quarter. So that means that in periods of volatile prices, just going by average prices for The quarter is not a good proxy to reach the right results. So I would encourage you to build this into your model. I know that many of you Already have that, but this is an important part to get an accurate prediction of our result. A few words on the outlook.
Many most of what I'm going to say on this slide has been covered in Q and A in earlier presentations. We are in this slide repeating the grade guidances that we gave In connection to the Q4 presentation, and the same thing goes for maintenance top and CapEx. Grades for mines that are not on this slide It's as usual reserve grades. That means that some are expected to come down a bit compared to Q4 because we had a few mines mining at really good grades in Q4. A couple of days ago, we sent a press release about production issues that we've seen in Q1.
COVID is far from over. We have had local outbreaks In Northern Sweden, where we have activities in Rangklarbulin area and Aitik, those of you that follow Swedish local press would know that. But it is true that we are feeling more impact on our production from COVID this year Or this quarter than what we have done in the previous year. In addition, we talked about Production disturbances in Aitik and Tara. In Aitik, there is 1 mill line that is down due to hydraulic problems.
And in Tara, it's the ore hoist that is out of production. In both these cases, We talked about the consequences in the press release. Repairs is going on and none of the 2 is Back to production yet, and of course, we'll keep you posted about developments. Finally, I'd like to move into Capital expenditure investments and talk about a little bit more about that. As I said, it's important for us to create value and develop the company.
And I know that there is An area of interest for many investors. Before going into the numbers and the categories, I'd just like to make a couple of general remarks. First of all, you won't get any numbers for 2022 and onwards. And the reason is that we decide our CapEx plans With 1 year time horizon in the late autumn every year. And when we decide that, that's also when we tell the market what we expect us What we're planning to do.
Secondly, one remark I'd like to make is that I'm going to talk a bit about different categories and that is, of course, To some extent, a simplification. We tag every investment project to one of these categories. But in reality, Of course, many investments fill several purposes. Looking back at, for example, the sulfuric acid plant in Harjavalta or The trucks to the open pit mines in Kevyl Sainaitik, they could be seen both as expansions, replacements, environmental investments, and then we tag it to Starting with mine sustaining CapEx. That includes stripping In open pit mines, development in underground mines and the successive raising of dams.
And the most important part here is stripping, where Aitik and Kevitsa make up Almost SEK 1,000,000,000 each. What defines this amount is basically how much waste rock we are Able to produce and the productivity that we have. So it's very much similar to OpEx in that sense. Our expectation is that this will be at roughly a stable level until 2024, which is when the volumes in Kevitsa starts tapering off. And that is done provided that we don't decide a pushback fiber and extend the mine life.
In this connection in this sense, I'd also like To comment a bit on the accounting, there are different ways of accounting for this. In our case, The full value of stripping goes into our CapEx number. There are other options as well, Which is good to know if you're comparing us with other. Replacement investments, that's fairly You see, from a definition point of view, it's just one to one replacements. One truck reaches its economic end of life and we buy a new one.
We spend about SEK 2,000,000,000 per year, half of that in each business area. My view is that this is stable. We have some flexibility in timing, of course. If there is a severe downturn, we can delay some projects. But ideally, we want to keep a steady pace.
So the way I see these 2 together, which is what we refer to as maintenance CapEx, add up to SEK 4,500,000,000 And I expect that to be stable over the next couple of years. In order to be successful, though, It's not enough to make one to one replacements. So we also spend money to extend and to expand. In connection to the Q4 results presentation, Michael talked about the term stay in business CapEx, which I think is a very good Description of what this is about. We have spent SEK 1,500,000,000 per year the last few years in this area, And this is also what we're spending in 2021.
And I think it's a good estimate also looking ahead, Although it will be depending on what opportunities we see, what requirements we get and what changes in regulations that we see. This is the foundation to extend and to develop the business. And to give a couple of examples, Our mines are getting deeper as we mine them underground and open pit. And that means that the tracking distances become longer. And if we don't improve our productivity, our unit cost will be higher.
And that's why we are continuously Working on productivity improvements. And there is also a CapEx element in this. Optimization is one example. Keeping the strong position on the cash cost curves, a strong cost position is important because there is a payback, of course, but it's also Something that makes it possible to convert mineral resources to mineral reserves and to extend mine life. If you go back to the slide Stefan Scholl, where we've increased the mine life in spite of increased production in many areas.
This is thanks to efficiency improvements that we've carried out. In smelting, we have invested in an improved capability to treat complex raw materials. There's more complex raw materials around. There's typically higher profitability in there. And investing in this is an important reason or It's an important fact for smelting to be able to make more money, which I think you have seen In the income statement for smelting the last few years, but also to be active on the raw material market.
And finally, environmental investments, and this is the most important one of these Three categories money wise. As you know, social and legal license top rate is critical for us. It's important. We need to get permits renewed, And we need to get new permits when we expand. Being ahead of the curve is highly When it comes to environmental investments, we have been spending about SEK 1,000,000,000 per year in that area over the last, I'd say 5 years.
Also talked about our strong ESG performance, including our Low CO2 footprint. This is partially coming from investments that we have carried out. I expect that To continue, the bar is higher every time. And this is an important part to be successful in this Finally, we are carrying out pure expansions, expansions versus our current production plan. This year, we are spending SEK 1,000,000,000.
Most important projects in there is the nickel expansion in Harjavalta and The leaching plant in Ranucoeur, which is coming online this year. We expect all of these to deliver good returns. I think you know most of the big projects that are in the pipeline. There are some smaller ones that are Outside this list, of course, but the big ones are Rhevladen and Oda 4.0, where we're expecting a decision this year. Tara Deep and the next pushback in Kevitsa when we are expecting a decision in 2024.
And then I also put labor on the list, and that's more uncertain when we'll be ready for a decision. And the limitation here is primarily Permits and management resources. So looking at investments, I think it's also valuable Look at the returns. Now we have delivered over the last 10 years strong return on capital employed. As an average, we are almost at 15%.
So we are delivering the returns. And we're So happy that we've been able to generate a strong cash return in the form of dividends and redemption of shares. 3 of the last 4 years, We have been able to propose to the AGM to pay out extra dividends, which I think is A healthy sign of our strong earnings capacity. Speaking about then dividends And investments, I'd like to end my prepared remarks by just underlying our commitment to the financial targets and the dividend policy that we have. These are not new.
You've seen them before. But they have served us very, very well over the last 10 years. And I'm confident That they will continue to serve us well going forward as well. So thank you. With that, I Hand over to Olav.
Thank you very much, Hakan. Ladies and gentlemen, that opens up our final Q And we will try a large logistical try here at Boliden getting our whole group management here We have plenty of them, and it's my job here now trying to prioritize a few of them. The first question goes to Mr. Romendal, Mainz, and it's from Amos Fletcher at Barclays. And it is that you've invested a lot in Aitik.
You're still not at 45,000,000 tonne pace. When should we expect that?
As I mentioned before, we will strive to get there as soon as possible, of course. And we will get there, but it will take some time. And I have no I can't say when that will happen actually.
Fair enough. And then we go on. It's a question for Asa. It's an ESG question, And it's from Oskar Lindstrom working for Danske Bank. And it goes like this.
Since you're moving towards electrification on your mining operations, Do you also need to secure that this is from renewable sources? In English, hydro or wind? And if so, how will you do that?
Thank you. Yes, we are securing long term agreements On the energy side, and we are I mean, in the northern part of Sweden, It's quite easy as it is mostly water and wind based. We have more difficulties in Ireland, as you saw also from my presentation, but we are And as you saw also from my presentation, but we are working actively even there to ensure that we improve energy, the energy So yes, this is a very important topic for us.
Then we have a question for Daniel. It's regarding smelters. It's from Jack O'Brien. He works for Max Sachs, and it follows. For the Oda expansion, would the capital intensity of roughly U.
S. Dollar 3,500 per tonne or similar to other zinc projects, be appropriate benchmark. Is that something When they're trying to figure out the large CapEx for this project,
say that I haven't really Went into those details. We are more or less looking at the total CapEx level of this and haven't made And the calculation regarding the tons that we are adding up
there. But let's go then move on to our CFO here on the same subject. We got a question. What do you mean by this with CapEx projects in line with the largest in Voliden's history?
Well, I think we mean pretty much what we said. This is going to be a sizable project. We haven't defined the amount yet. But I think to give an order of magnitude, you look at the last at the bigger expansion projects we've done in mines over Over the last 10, 15 years, and it's those kind of numbers. We'll have to firm it up when we have defined the exact Scope and when we got the quotations, but that's roughly what we're talking about.
And just to give some example, then we have Garpenberg About $4,000,000,000 and we had I think at about $6,000,000,000 And I think we should think But that order of magnitude. Okay. Can't be more precise than that at this time.
Oscar Lindstrom at Danske Bank. You also had a follow-up question and it goes for our CEO then and it's regarding this renewable industry. And I read this question here to Mr. Staphas. We are now seeing several new industrial projects in Northern Sweden, Which will likely increase competition for renewable electricity in the region.
This could, of course, increase prices. Can you see that you need to sign up supply from specific suppliers who can guarantee that the source is renewable?
Well, thank you, Oscar. The answer is yes, and we're already doing this. We are already today supplying from specific suppliers Who can promise us that it's renewables, be it either hydro or be it wind or a combination of the 2. So that's nothing new. And The other part of your question is, will there be competition for electricity in Northern Sweden?
I think the answer is yes. I think that there are people out there who are a little bit, We say betting a lot that it will be very much available. I think that in the end of the day, it's going to be a scarce resource, but we will be Quite competitive to fight for this resource compared to many others. And I also, by the way, think it's going to be very limited that would be available to be shipped south. That is electricity being shipped south.
And then we have a question from Christian Kopfer. He works for Nordea in Stockholm, and the question goes to Mr. Romedal, and it's regarding Aitik. I read, Aitik's OpEx per tonne in Krouda increased 8% in 2020 and has increased by 5% on average since 2016. How can unit cost be lowered, thanks to the electrification process going on?
And also, how much of the increased unit cost That we saw in 2020 was due to COVID-nineteen. Can you specify, please?
The increased cost based on COVID, I don't We'll get a number for that. Sorry about that. But if you look into the electrification, how that can Decrease our costs going forward. In the situation now when we have done the pilot test and we are in the beginning of this, We really didn't get the lower cost benefit from it. But it will affect our efficiencies, of course, As well as the cost, if you're looking on the long run.
Okay. Here, we have a little different question from for Mr. In smelters, maybe it's good to have some variety to all these numerical question. It goes like this. You have a long History within the Nordic pulp and paper industry, what is different now when you come into the metals and mining world?
And what will you bring From the pulp and paper world to the smelting world.
Well, pulp and paper business is very much alike. It is long term. It's large CapEx investments and well, it's basic industry. So I would say And not the least thinking about the delegated responsibility
that we have within Boliden. So it fits Very well together, I think, with the history that I have bringing with me. Thank you very much. Then we come to Daniel Major from UBS, and it's a question to our CFO, Hakan Gorbilsen. It's A number of your peers specifically disclosed the open positions at each quarterly end.
Would it be possible for Boliden to provide something similar in the future to make our lives easier?
I think that's I won't give a firm promise here, but I will promise to look into it and I think it sounds like a Reasonable request. So let me come back with that.
Many, many questions here. Lots to choose from. This time, it's time for Christian Agavar. He works for Citibank based in London, and it's for Mr. Peltonen.
Can you discuss broad composition of your precious metal exposure? Does it include material quantities of palladium And rhodium, how does your precious metal exposure look like?
We don't separate Those, what we are talking mainly about gold and silver and then we have the platinum group metals that we have there. So
That's how far we can go from that point of view exactly. Now when you took the chance to talk, Orkjaan, I will not let you off the hook because now it's Gustaf Schwerin. He says that, is it fair to assume $5,000,000,000 to $6,000,000,000 in CapEx for Oda? Is that what you're trying to say?
I think I've said what I as much as I can say. I think I said as much as I can say. And the fact is that we don't know yet, but it's a sizable And it's a bigger number than what we've seen in some of the reports out on the market.
A question, an ESG question then for Mrs. Jackson. If you were to prioritize among all those different ESG standards that Bouhilden reports to, which one would you prioritize? Which one is the most important as we speak? Thank you.
It's
Thank you. It's good to try to clarify In that ESG reporting world, we report according to GRI, And that is the most common and most used standard. And also, what we hear is the standard But most of our stakeholders also request us to report according to. Then we follow a lot of principles, as I also mentioned in my presentation. But GRI
A question for Mr. Romerdal, it's from a U. S. Investor. And you mentioned Possible expansion of the Garpenberg mine.
Can you please tell us some specifics, time lines? What should we know?
The time line for this possible 10% improved production, That's based, of course, of pending the permit from to increase the production level to Permian for production to 3.5%. And if we get that this year, I would say that we will be up 10% from what we have delivered so far in the next 2 to 3 years.
While you're here, we have a question from Gustaf Schrodin working for Handelsbanken. Ken, timing of the Rev Legion project, can you please clarify CapEx, return on investments
For that specific project? Yes. We will come back with a CapEx level For Airblade and the time line for a decision, we hope that we will be able to present something in the Q2 this year. Excellent.
Okay. There's lots to choose from here. We have one question from Gol Jatinder and he works for example BNP Paribas and it's for you Hakan. What's been the trend in staying business CapEx over the past 5 years? And what do you expect for the coming years?
To summarize, it's a bit more variable than what we have seen in pure replacement, but the trend has been around SEK 1,500,000,000 per year over the last you. And that's what I am expecting going forward as well. Out of that, about SEK 1,000,000,000 per year has been pure environmental investments and the remainder Efficiencies, debottlenecking, complex materials and so on. So that's what I would expect. If I just say one number, I'd say it's stable, 1.5, but again, keep in mind that it may vary between years.
Excellent. Thank you. Then we shift to Mr. Peltonen And the question is from Daniel Wust, and he works for Crossinvest in Switzerland. When you shift to production of green metals, does this only affect the energy input or this does it have an impact on input material quality As well.
Generally it's not affecting that much. It's more evaluating what we have And really seeing, well, evaluating with 3rd party our complete scope of emissions. And Concentrates that are less pure or more contaminating. And in our case, we have not really changed that much Regarding this, it's more really to know what you do and to materialize these benefits that we see from our Pure constant risk that we are utilizing. While you're near, Christian Agavar from Citibank.
Are you able to discuss the potential margins in the Margins, No, I cannot physically go into that. I have too short background regarding We
can't give everything away, can we? I mean, we must say something for the next Capital Markets Day. Okay. Another final question then by Charles Glasse, Glass maybe you say. He works for Waverton in the U.
Once again, please repeat. What's the price premium for low carbon copper? I think we've answered that one. But the other one is, what do
you really mean by normal copper then? Well, normal copper or That is actually a copper produced by international concentrates. That is not coming from our Own sources and our own mines, so that is something that has a total different carbon footprint when it comes to us. So that's how we kind of divide these different parts.
Excellent. And then we have an EC question Again for Mrs. Jackson, and it's a broad question. It's from Joakim Berlinbach, and he works for a company called Earth Investments. And the question goes like this.
Do you consider to cooperate with other potential Competitive competitive companies to improve your ESG position.
Thank you. That was A good question. We are always striving to learn from the best. And in Our journey here now towards this vision that we have set up, if we find ways where we can strategically We work together with those that are better than we are in some areas. We will look into that.
And Some areas, it's definitely good working with almost anyone, Not depending at all if they are competitors or not. So in some areas, I would say, yes, if we find Really valuable for us to partnership with, we will do it.
I'm seeing that our CEO over there, he looks like he doesn't get any questions. He's starting to look a little bit angry at me. But we have One question here for you, Mr. Staffa. And it is, can you elaborate on how it looks on the M and A situation currently?
And if you were to Prioritize among those projects that we learned about today and M and A, what would you choose?
Well, thank you for the question. Number 1, I think that's been clear many times that if I were to prioritize between brownfield investments and M and A, brownfield always goes first. We always have better Returns on brownfield than we have on M and A. That doesn't mean that M and A is off the table. We're always looking, always trying to find Something, but I always said that we're also happy to not do anything if the prices are not right.
And of course, as you will imagine with the present metal Also asset prices are at very high levels, I would say. I also used the opportunity now as I suddenly got in here to comment on some of the answers before. I think that, just very clear, on Aitik cost development, don't forget that Aitik has gotten a pretty big and hefty increase in taxes on fuel
that comes into that comparison,
which means that it's on fuel that comes into that comparison, which means that it's difficult unless you adjust for those taxes to really make that comment That you did. Regarding the leach plant in Rundsja, I think we told you what products we're doing. And based on the products we're doing and what we have At least you can have some sense of what the revenues are. And you can say that the cost of the material Going in is relatively low because it's basically something that we had at very low margins. So that's a very low inventory balance, you would say.
So those are just some comments on some Previous answers. Over to you, Ulf.
Thank you. And then it's a question regarding mining, and of course, it's then for Mr. Romedal. Can you say something about the potential expansion of the Kevitsa mine and a possible pushback 5 there? What's the time line?
Can you give us some specifics, please?
No, I will not give any specifics around this. We are doing the evaluation of this, and we need Some time to be able to come back with you. Everything else, I will not be able to stand for going forward.
Question for Mr. Peltonen, it's regarding smelters, and it's once again regarding low carbon. And it's the question goes like this. Do you blend own concentrate with 3rd party concentrates? And would this green copper expansion limit your blending and complex concentrate possibilities?
No, well, we are blending, yes, that is actually one of the basics to be able to treat different Complex material, but really to get out this green or low carbon copper, it's about the mass balance. And that is, by the way, also utilized in other industries when having certified raw material that comes in. It is blended with other material. But what goes in comes out also in the same proportions, and that is then in the end What we are verifying by 3rd party so that we are really having control of this. So it's really a mass balance and it is not Really hindering us from going forward.
Thank you. And while you're near, it's from Luke Nielsen. It's he's worked for JPMorgan. On ODA 4.0, can you confirm the technology being proposed? Would it be conventional roast leach, electro Or atmospheric leaching.
Can you confirm the technology, please? Well, what we are talking about is Technology, so in that sense it is something that really works. But of course the sizing
and everything is in a total different league. Going for the maximum size of electro winning and also the same with the roasting. So it's really going into a you. A new more efficient level, but basically it's the traditional technology in that sense.
And then, ladies and gentlemen, you can't imagine how many questions I have here. And once again, there will be plenty of time After the CMD to come back to us, you know where to reach us. We will do our best to answer all these questions. But I have One here from a U. S.
Investor to Mr. Romendal. It's regarding mining. It says, once again, congratulations on Strenforsch, if you were to outline your dream scenario, if everything goes perfectly well, when will this be a new mine for Boliden? Could you at least elaborate about the different steps, how it will
look like?
Yes. I mean, as I mentioned before, it is an early exploration project still. And this will normally take And this will normally take 10 years if you have a normal and we will try to stress this as Quick as possible, of course. But let's say that we don't need actually to have a decision around this in the next 5 years. So it will take some Time more before we are in a position to really get up with a proposed Decision for where to when to mine it.
And as I mentioned also that the Boledon area, the mill there will be filled up With ore from the 3 existing operations, including Revlite. So, yes, I can't give any specific date for it. Even if I should do that based on my dreams, Then I start crying and you don't want to see that.
We'd rather have that smile on your face there. That's better. Okay, ladies gentlemen, that concludes our group Q and A session. It's time for our President and CEO, Mikael Staffas, to conclude Our Capital Markets Day 2021. Mikael Staffas, the stage is yours.
Thank you. Thank you, everybody, and thank you for all the questions. And thank you for staying Staying with us during the St. Patrick's Day. I don't know who of you have been looking detailed enough at Stefan Rommel and his tie, but those who have We'll have noticed that he's wearing the tie with the Tara footprint and the St.
Patrick's footprint just to celebrate today. I hope that we've been able to get some messages across today. What we want I want to get across is that we do have an organization with high Performance ethics. We have an organization that is used to do projects to get them done and to get them done in time. Also, on top of that, we put together a new purpose, a new vision and a new mission statement in order to be able to Go forward, and we've been very clear what we want to achieve and what our value words are.
We talk about sustainability. We see that we're already today doing extremely good in sustainability, but we're not happy. We want to continue to move forward on sustainability. We've started now To brand our products, to get 3rd party valuation, to be able to show very clearly what we're doing, we want that to continue going forward. You can expect that we will have more metals as we meet in the years going forward that we will be able to verify.
We talk about exploration, something that we maybe don't talk enough about. I think that we've had a very successful exploration over the years that we've been able to Keep all of our assets alive for much longer than we ever thought. And now we also have Stromfas, which is exciting new opportunity That, as Stefan pointed out here towards the end, is not going to come in play for a while, but we have Rovid and we will be able to fill once again the mill In Boliden, but once we will start depleting some of the other assets, we have Stromfors ready to stand up and take the place. And by the way, Stromfors has higher values than many of the other things. We also and also, by the way, we also talked about Tara and the success there About exploration where we are very hopeful to be able to get tar deep into even larger volumes to be able to move that forward to a very exciting mining project.
We talked also about other projects, and we talked about the Oda project. You've seen from OSA how well Oda is positioned On the climate scale, how very efficient operation that is. And I would say from an industrial logic, there is no better place in the world to have a zinc smelter than in Oda. Good logistics, very good opportunity with mountain caverns to handle the slag, very good electricity. And we feel on top of that, we'll put together A state of the art type of facility with the productivities that comes with that.
I think this is exactly what you. Society would like to have and would like to do. And finally, I would like to just stress once again what Hakan stressed towards the end. We have a very stable operations. It's stable both because we're good at operating it and we operate relatively stable, even though we now in Q1 have had Some major production issues that is not common.
We usually produce very well. We have a strength of all the mix that we Between mining and smelting, between bases and pressures and also with the currencies involved, which means that our revenues Our earnings are more stable than you think if you just look at the individual pieces because of the negative correlations that we have. And on top of that, we have A strong balance sheet, and we have a very healthy I would say, very healthy dividend policy that has served us very well So that was the message from this year's Capital Market Day. I very much look forward to seeing you all in person the next time around, Maybe 18 months from now, we'll see exactly what the timing will be. And with that, I wish you all a very good day.
Thank you.