Kittilä gold mine pays back 1.5 billion euros in investments

Finland’s Kittilä gold mine has produced 96,400 kilograms of gold and is now paying back the 1.5 billion euros invested in it, according to Yle. The mine recorded an operating profit of 453 million euros last year.

The mine was established by Canadian company Agnico Eagle in 2006, at a time when gold cost about 14,000 euros per kilogram. Four years later, the price had doubled. This year, gold has sold for as much as 120,000 euros per kilogram.

If gold had maintained this year’s price throughout the mine’s production, the output would be worth 11.6 billion euros. Based on historical gold prices, the market value of Kittilä’s gold is estimated at between 4.4 billion and 4.7 billion euros.

The calculation was made using artificial intelligence and average prices from the London Metal Exchange, as well as information from Agnico Eagle. The company says the calculation is correct.

Agnico Eagle Finland’s chief executive, Jani Lösönen, said the mine’s cumulative cash flow is only now turning positive because of the scale of the investments.

“Investments directed at the Kittilä mine have amounted to about 1.5 billion euros over its lifetime. In addition, operational costs have accumulated to 2.5 billion euros,” Lösönen said.

The mine has extracted and processed gold for almost 17 years. Its 100-metre-high blue hoist tower, which cost hundreds of millions of euros, rises above the mining area. Workers and ore are transported underground and back up by lifts.

Agnico Eagle employs about 500 people in Finland. Mining is highly automated, and the mine has its own 5G network, which can be used to operate loading machines and drilling rigs remotely.

Remote operator Kari Roinesalo controls the mining process from an underground control room. He still wears work boots because some situations during a shift require staff to visit the process in person.

The company is continuously searching for more ore both deep underground and in the upper layers of the ground.

Refractory gold requires energy intensive processing

Gold at Kittilä is refractory, meaning it is difficult to extract. It cannot be collected as visible nuggets because it is hidden in microscopic particles inside arsenopyrite and pyrite.

Processing the gold therefore requires more demanding methods than those used at many of the world’s gold mines. Kittilä uses pressure oxidation technology, which is expensive to build and consumes large amounts of energy.

Mine director Mikko Keränen said that anyone who finds a gold nugget during a visit to the mine is allowed to keep it.

The mine’s revenue last year was 662 million euros, while its operating profit was 453 million euros. The strong performance continued in the second quarter of this year.

According to Agnico Eagle, the mine paid 64 million euros in corporate tax and 27 million euros in value added tax last year. A separate breakdown of revenue to Finland in 2024 lists 42 million euros in corporate tax, 27 million euros in value added tax, 20 million euros in income tax, and 11.8 million euros in mining mineral tax and royalties.

The company pays about 100 million euros in wages and makes more than 200 million euros in mainly domestic purchases.

Kittilä became an anchor investment

Kittilä is now one of the company’s established, productive mines, allowing gold revenues to be invested in new projects elsewhere in the group.