MineGuessr – Sydvaranger, Norway: Arctic Iron Ore and Green Steel Magnetite

Overview & location

Sydvaranger is a large open-pit iron ore mine at Bjørnevatn in Sør-Varanger municipality, eastern Finnmark, in Norway’s far northeast. The mine sits just south of the town of Kirkenes, a short distance from the Barents Sea and close to the Russian border. Historically, ore has been railed about 8.5 km along the Kirkenes–Bjørnevatn Line to the port at Kirkenes for concentration and shipment. 

Mining at Sydvaranger dates back to 1910, when A/S Sydvaranger began exploiting the Bjørnevatn banded iron formation. Large-scale open-pit mining continued until 1997, followed by a modern restart in 2009 and another suspension in 2015 during a period of low iron ore prices. 

Today, under Swedish owner Grangex, Sydvaranger is being prepared for a new life as a supplier of ultra-high-grade magnetite concentrate – with operations currently dormant and a planned restart targeting the second half of this decade. 

Where in the world is Sydvaranger?

• Country & region: Sør-Varanger municipality, Troms og Finnmark county, northern Norway, just north of 69°N latitude.
• Mine site: Multiple open pits around Bjørnevatn, about 10 km south of Kirkenes.
• Logistics: The Kirkenes–Bjørnevatn railway links the pits to the concentrator and port at Kirkenes, historically one of the world’s northernmost industrial railways.
• Product corridor: Concentrate shipped from the ice-free port of Kirkenes to European and global steelmakers, with some cargoes historically trialled along the Northern Sea Route toward Asia.

Geology & deposit type

Sydvaranger is hosted in the Bjørnevatn banded iron formation (BIF), part of a very old sedimentary sequence in the Sør-Varanger province. The ore body is a classic Algoma-type BIF dominated by quartz–magnetite iron formations.

Key geological features:

• The BIF sequence is roughly 3.8 billion years old, representing some of the oldest iron-forming environments in Europe.
• Iron formations extend for about 12 km north–south, with a series of named deposits and open pits (for example Pit 1–8 in recent resource models).
• The ore consists mainly of magnetite-rich layers interbedded with quartz-rich bands, with relatively low sulphur and deleterious elements – ideal feedstock for high-quality concentrates.
• Recent technical studies outline a resource base of several hundred million tonnes of iron ore grading around 32–33% Fe (total), supporting a long potential mine life at planned production rates.

For MineGuessr, Sydvaranger represents the banded iron formation end of the calendar – contrasting nicely with the porphyry copper, talc and industrial mineral operations featured on other days.

What the mining satellite timelapse shows

The mining satellite timelapse for Sydvaranger (1984–2022) compresses decades of activity into just a few seconds, capturing:

1. 1980s–1990s – mature open pits and steady production

• By the mid-1980s, Sydvaranger was already a well-established open-pit operation feeding the concentrator and port at Kirkenes.
• Mining drew on several pits across the Bjørnevatn ore field, with large waste dumps and tailings facilities gradually building up around the mine and processing complex.

What you see from space:

• • A series of stepped open pits spreading across the ridge south of Kirkenes.
  • Growing waste rock dumps adjacent to the pits.
  • Tailings facilities and plant infrastructure at the Kirkenes industrial site.

2. Late 1990s – closure and care & maintenance

• After nearly 90 years of operation, mining ceased in 1997 as the original operation became uneconomic.
• The pits and waste dumps stabilised, with limited new disturbance but ongoing environmental management.

In the timelapse:

• The pit outlines and dumps remain largely unchanged, with subtle signs of water collecting in the deeper pit bottoms and progressive revegetation around the edges.

3. 2009–2015 – modern restart and renewed mining

• A new phase of mining began in 2009 under international ownership, using modern truck–shovel fleets and updated processing facilities.
• Production continued until 2015, when low iron ore prices and market conditions again led to suspension of operations.

In the timelapse:

• You will notice fresh benches and haul roads cutting into existing pit walls.
• Waste dumps are extended and re-profiled, while the industrial site at Kirkenes shows renewed activity and stockpiles.

4. 2016–2020s – dormant pits and planning for a green restart

• Following the 2015 suspension, the mine has remained in care and maintenance while ownership changed hands.
• Technical and economic studies have since focused on restarting Sydvaranger as a supplier of direct-reduction (DR) grade magnetite concentrate, aligned with the needs of low-carbon steel plants.

From a MineGuessr lens:

• The overall footprint remains large but static, with clear pit walls and benches, plus turquoise pit lakes in some of the deeper voids.
• The rail link and port facilities at Kirkenes remain visible, underlining the importance of integrated logistics in remote iron ore projects.

Mining method & processing – how the ore moves

In its planned restart configuration, Sydvaranger will be a conventional open-pit iron ore operation feeding a centralised crushing and concentration circuit:

• Open-pit mining: Multiple pits mined in phases, using large-scale drilling, blasting and truck–shovel fleets to move ore and waste.
• Crushing & cobbing: Ore is crushed near the pit and processed through a cobbing plant to upgrade magnetite content before final concentration.
• Concentration: Magnetic separation produces a high-grade magnetite concentrate with target Fe contents around 70% Fe and very low deleterious elements, suitable for DR furnaces.
• Rail & port: Concentrate is transported by rail from Bjørnevatn to the Kirkenes port terminal, then exported by ship to European and potentially global steelmakers.

From a process-engineering perspective, Sydvaranger sits firmly in the Arctic magnetite concentrate segment: high-quality product, significant upfront infrastructure, and long-term exposure to steel decarbonisation trends.

Role in the raw materials value chain and energy transition

Sydvaranger’s significance in the raw materials value chain is closely tied to the European steel industry:

• The project is designed to supply ultra-high-grade DR magnetite concentrate to steel plants transitioning from blast furnaces to direct reduction and electric-arc furnace (EAF) routes.
• The high Fe grade and low impurities are intended to help minimise CO₂ intensity per tonne of steel and fit within future green steel certification schemes.
• Being located inside the EU/EEA supply sphere, Sydvaranger supports European goals for secure, local iron ore supply under evolving strategic raw materials frameworks.

In the context of the energy transition, Sydvaranger is interesting because it sits at the intersection of:

• Arctic logistics: leveraging an ice-free Barents Sea port with historic trials of iron ore shipments along the Northern Sea Route.
• Decarbonised steelmaking: providing DR-grade feedstock to new and retrofitted steel plants aiming to cut emissions.
• Land-use legacies: managing a century-old open-pit footprint, historic tailings and new ESG expectations in a sensitive northern landscape.

What to look for in the MineGuessr timelapse

As a MineGuessr player, could you spot the following in the Sydvaranger timelapse?

1. The growth and then stabilisation of the open pits across the Bjørnevatn ridge.
2. The development of large waste dumps and tailings areas around the pits and near the Kirkenes industrial zone.
3. The subtle visual shift from active benching to more static pit walls and partial flooding after production pauses.
4. The enduring importance of rail and port infrastructure – constant features across decades of changing mine plans.

MineGuessr perspective – why this mine was included

We selected Sydvaranger for the MineGuessr mining advent calendar because it:

• Shows one of Europe’s largest Arctic open-pit iron ore mines, with a clear BIF footprint easily recognisable in satellite imagery.
• Provides a visual case study of long-term land use, closure, and potential restart in a remote region.
• Illustrates how a legacy iron ore operation can be repurposed for DR-grade magnetite concentrate suited to low-carbon steelmaking.

In our GeoGuessr-style mine guessing game, Sydvaranger helps spark conversations about banded iron formations, Arctic mining logistics and the green steel revolution – all visible through the changing geometry of an open-pit mine at 69°N.

In December, keep opening a new door every day and you can explore all 24 mines featured this year on the main MineGuessr mining advent calendar page.

• Day 1 - Aitik (Sweden, copper-gold open pit)
  A large, low-grade copper operation south of Gällivare
  👉 Open Door 1 - Aitik
• Day 2 - Björkdal (Sweden, gold)
  Gold mine near Skellefteå, combining open-pit and underground mining.
  👉 Open Door 2 - Björkdal
• Day 3 - Kemi (Finland, chrome)
  Chrome mine in northern Finland, Europe’s only chromite operation.
  👉 Open Door 3 - Kemi
• Day 4 - Ørtfjell (Norway, iron ore)
  Iron ore mine in Norway’s Dunderland Valley, evolving from large open pits to underground mining.
  👉 Open Door 4 - Ørtfjell
• Day 5 - Trimouns (France, talc)
  World’s largest working talc quarry high in the French Pyrenees above Luzenac.
  👉 Open Door 5 - Trimouns
• Day 6 - Skouries (Greece, copper-gold porphyry)
  High-grade copper–gold porphyry project in the forests of Halkidiki, still under construction.
  👉 Open Door 6 - Skouries
• Day 7 - Las Cruces (Spain, copper)
  High-grade hydromet copper mine in the Iberian Pyrite Belt north-west of Seville.
  👉 Open Door 7 - Las Cruces
• Day 8 - Assarel–Medet (Bulgaria, copper)
  Twin porphyry copper open pits in the Panagyurishte district, from Europe’s former largest open-pit copper mine at Medet to today’s modern Assarel operation.
  👉 Open Door 8 - Assarel–Medet
• Day 9 - Glomel (France, andalusite)
  World-class andalusite open-pit quarry in Brittany’s Montagnes Noires, supplying refractory minerals for Europe’s steel, foundry, cement and glass industries.
  👉 Open Door 9 - Glomel
• Day 10 - Parnassos–Ghiona (Greece, bauxite)
  Karst-type bauxite mines in the Parnassos–Ghiona mountains, a historic alumina feedstock district supplying Greece’s aluminium industry.
  👉 Open Door 10 - Parnassos–Ghiona
• Day 11 - Kittilä (Finland, gold)
  Europe’s largest primary gold mine at the Suurikuusikko orogenic gold deposit north of the Arctic Circle.
  👉 Open Door 11 - Kittilä
• Day 12 - Oltenia Energy Complex (Romania, lignite)
  Cluster of large open-pit lignite mines and mine-mouth power plants in Gorj County, now at the centre of Romania’s coal phase-out and just transition plans.
  👉 Open Door 12 - Oltenia Energy Complex
• Day 13 - Cornwall china clay (UK)
  Historic Imerys china clay pits near St Austell, where bright white kaolin benches and tips reshape “Clay Country” over decades of mining and restoration.
  👉 Open Door 13 - Cornwall china clay
• Day 14 - Aggeria–Agia Irini (Greece, bentonite)
  Overlapping bentonite open pits on the volcanic island of Milos, anchoring one of Europe’s key industrial minerals districts.
  👉 Open Door 14 - Aggeria–Agia Irini
• Day 15 - Skouriotissa (Cyprus, copper & hydromet)
  Ancient copper mining district in the Troodos ophiolite, now a hydrometallurgical hub processing copper, gold and battery-metal feed.
  👉 Open Door 15 - Skouriotissa
• Day 16 - Tunstead (UK, limestone & cement)
  The UK’s largest limestone quarry near Buxton, feeding an integrated lime and cement works with long-term restoration and biodiversity plans.
  👉 Open Door 16 - Tunstead
• Day 17 - Narva (Estonia, oil shale)
  Large open-pit oil shale mine in Ida-Viru County, supplying the Narva power plants and reshaping the landscape with strip mining and reclamation.
  👉 Open Door 17 - Narva
• Day 19 - Kevitsa (Finland, nickel–copper–PGE)
  Multimetal open-pit mine in Finnish Lapland, combining Ni–Cu–PGE production with trolley-assisted haulage for lower-emission mining.
  👉 Open Door 19 - Kevitsa
• Day 20 - Styrian Erzberg (Austria, iron ore)
  Terraced “pyramid” open-pit iron ore mine at Eisenerz, turning 12 Mt of rock into ~3 Mt of ore each year for Austria’s steel industry.
  👉 Open Door 20 - Styrian Erzberg
• Day 21 - Minas de Alquife (Spain, iron ore)
  Europe’s largest open-pit iron ore mine in Granada, restarting in 2020 after two decades of closure to supply high-grade ore to European steelmakers.
  👉 Open Door 21 - Minas de Alquife
• Day 22 - Siilinjärvi (Finland, phosphate)
  EU’s only operating phosphate mine in central Finland, mining an Archean carbonatite for fertiliser-grade apatite and creating distinctive pale tailings and phosphogypsum stacks.
  👉 Open Door 22 - Siilinjärvi
• Day 23 - Tellnes (Norway, ilmenite/titanium)
  World-class ilmenite open pit in the Rogaland Anorthosite Province, supplying TiO₂ pigment feedstock from one of Europe’s largest titanium deposits.
  👉 Open Door 23 - Tellnes
• Day 24 - Elatsite (Bulgaria, copper–gold porphyry)
  High-altitude porphyry copper–gold open pit in Bulgaria’s Srednogorie zone, with ore conveyed under the Balkan Mountains to a separate flotation–tailings complex.
  👉 Open Door 24 - Elatsite

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About Gosselin Mining

At Gosselin Mining, we work with exactly the kind of long-life operations that Sydvaranger represents: large open pits, complex logistics chains, stringent ESG expectations and increasing pressure to supply low-carbon raw materials. If you need support to:

• Stress-test your life-of-mine plan for an iron ore or other bulk commodity project
• Evaluate options for DR-grade magnetite concentrate or other energy transition products
• Benchmark your mine planning, haulage concepts or ESG profile against peer operations in the Nordics and wider Europe

…you’re very welcome to book a meeting with us.

Further Reading and References

1. Grangex (online) Sydvaranger mine – project overview. Available at https://www.grangex.se/en/the-operation/projects-operational-areas/grangex-sydvaranger/ (Accessed on 18 December 2025)
2. SLR Consulting for Grangex (online) Sydvaranger Iron Ore Project – Technical summaries and feasibility studies. Available via Grangex at https://www.grangex.se/en/sydvaranger-geology-at-the-frontier/ (Accessed on 18 December 2025)
3. Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) (online) Bjørnevatn banded iron formation – deposit fact sheet. Available at https://aps.ngu.no/pls/oradb/minres_deposit_fakta_ny.main?p_objid=662&p_spraak=E (Accessed on 18 December 2025)