Customer story
Circular Economy

From Piloting to Closure Design – GTK SMARTTEST Brings Certainty to Cover Structure Selection at the Kittilä Mine

The Kittilä mine has been developing closure plans for its tailings areas since 2019. Piloting different cover structures is a key part of advancing the design. Geological Survey of Finland’s GTK SMARTTEST field testing platform for extractive waste and secondary materials has provided an opportunity to evaluate the performance of potential cover structure before making final decisions.

Construction of the field test to pilot cover structures in the GTK SMARTTEST test field. Photo: Joonas Toivanen, Geological Survey of Finland GTK.

Agnico Eagle Finland operates the Kittilä gold mine. Over the years, the mine has made extensive use of GTK’s expertise, including in geophysical surveys and studies supporting environmental permitting.

Closure planning for the Kittilä mine has now reached a stage where the cover structures for the tailings ponds and their performance require testing before final decisions.

Tailored field tests support closure design

The GTK SMARTTEST field testing platform, located at the GTK Mintec pilot plant in Outokumpu, provided suitable conditions for implementing the tests. Field tests are tailored to the customer’s needs and deliver real time information on the long-term behaviour of extractive waste and performance of closure options.

Environmental Manager Mika Nieminen, Agnico Eagle Finland: “Kittilä mine needed to pilot cover structures for the tailings areas, and cooperation with GTK made it possible to carry out parallel pilots of several cover designs. This results in significant schedule savings and provides valuable additional data to support closure planning, especially since pilot projects typically span several years.”

Added value through collaboration

From the outset, the Kittilä mine has participated in the co-funded ERDF SMARTTEST project, contributing to both test planning and the delivery of pilot materials. The test is ongoing, and its’ results will support the next phases of closure design.

Agnico Eagle Finland has also taken part in several other co-funded research projects. The most recent of these is the Biopeitto 3 joint project by the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and GTK, which investigates biocover solutions that promote ecosystem recovery in mine site rehabilitation.

According to Mika Nieminen, cooperation with GTK has been smooth and continues to develop. New collaborative efforts are already being planned.

“Our company places high importance on conducting comprehensive and detailed closure planning during active mine operations. Through the ERDF SMARTTEST project, we can implement pilot-scale test structures that are genuinely integrated into the closure planning process. The goal is to gather additional data to advance the design — information that would be extremely difficult to obtain without these test structures.”

Why choose GTK?

Cooperation with GTK made it possible to carry out parallel pilots of several cover designs. This results in significant schedule savings and provides valuable additional data to support closure planning.

Field test setup equipped with insulation plates for winter conditions. The quantity and quality of seepage and surface runoff are monitored using flow meters, as well as from the water collected in the canisters. Photo: Päivi Kauppila, Geological Survey of Finland GTK.
Structure of the field test and locations of the monitoring sensors. The field test studies the potential use of NP tailings (NP, 2-m layer) as part of a cover structure over CIL tailings (CIL, a 0.4 m layer at the bottom of the test). Various sensors (pH, EC, oxygen concentration, moisture, water potential) have been installed in the field test to measure changes occurring within the tailings. Figure: Rita Kallio, Geological Survey of Finland GTK.

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