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(Kitco News) - Sweden-based mining and metallurgical company Boliden (Nasdaq Stockholm: BOL) announced Monday that nickel production at its Harjavalta smelter in Finland has been stopped due to a slag explosion that was the result of a process malfunction in the nickel electric furnace slag tapping system on December 24.

The company said that no one was injured as a result of the explosion and that the main damage is in the mechanical construction and the slag tapping system.

Boliden added that production in the nickel line has been stopped and is estimated to be offline until mid-January.

According to the company’s statement, current estimates on the impact on EBIT due to the lost production and repair costs is 100 MSEK (~$11 million), of which half in Q4 2021.

Boliden Harjavalta is located in south-west Finland, close to the port on the Baltic Sea. The smelter’s main products are copper, nickel, gold and silver, as well as by-products such as sulphuric acid. Boliden Harjavalta is the only nickel smelter in Western Europe.

According to Wikipedia, Boliden is a Swedish mining and smelting company focusing on production of copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver. The name comes from the Boliden mine, some 30 km northwest of the Swedish town of Skellefteå, where gold was found in 1924.

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