Norway Builds SILA Project Sweden's LKAB supplies highly upgraded iron ore products to the steel industry and custom-adapted mineral products to other industrial sectors. Most of LKAB's products are shipped via the Narvik ore harbour in northern Norway. Upgrading of the Kiruna-Narvik railway section to accommodate a 30-tonne axle loadwill be completed in 2008, by which time the new harbour will also be operational.The ore harbour is being refurbished to upgrade and improve the efficiency of harbour operations as well as the environment. As part of a project named SILA, underground ore storage silos and a tunnel will be built and the entire harbour facilities will be adapted to handle larger ore trains and greater volumes of iron ore products.Above the storage area, the ore trains will enter the tunnel and discharge their loads into the silos. This concept reduces noise and dust and the silos will also be equipped with dust evacuation systems. A de-icing station will be installed near the tunnel entrance. Each silo holds about 110,000 tonnes of pellets (about 16 of the new train sets). The total storage capacity is approximately 1.5 million tonnes. A belt conveyor under the silos will lead up to surface level, where it will be covered. The conveyor will move products to the existing screening station. From there, the products will be carried by another belt conveyor to shiploading equipment. Two small silos for inventory balancing will be built near the screening station at surface level.Leonhard Nilsen & Sonner (LNS) has started building 12 large storage silos and a smaller one in the form of rock caverns. The 12 large silos will have an outer diameter of 38 m. The little one will have a diameter of 15 metres. They will be about 60 m deep. The tunnel width varies from 6 to 11.5 m and the length is about 1,700 m. The geology is micaceous gneiss. The caverns and tunnel are blasted. An impressive 35 machines are working at the project at the moment but this will increase shortly. Seven surface drill rigs are working to build the silos, three supplied by Atlas Copco (D7-11 and D7C-11) and four by Tamrock (700-2, 780 and K7). The little silo is planned to be lined with non-corrosive steel plates and the big ones will be lined with sprayed concrete where necessary. Visit www.atlascopco.com and www.tamrock.sandvik.comTwo 3-boom underground drill rigs are used for the tunnel (one AMV 21 SGBC-CC and an Atlas Copco XL3). Visit www.amv-as.no Excavators are from Cat (322 and 325), Volvo (EC460BLC, EC450 and EW180B), Komatsu (PC290 and PC600LC), wheel loaders from Volvo (L120, L180 E and L330E) and dumpers from Volvo (A35D and A40D). Visit www.cat.com, www.komatsu.com and www.volvo.comThe design was undertaken by LKAB in cooperation with LNS, Pro-ing. AB and AT-Consult. The consultant for the rock work is AT-Consult. Visit www.lkab.com, www.lns.no and www.at.noThe estimated cost for the rock work is about NOK200 million. Construction commenced in February 2006 and will be finished approximately in February 2008. 25/06.