Europe's largest gold mine, an active underground operation near Kiistala in northern Finnish Lapland, operated by Agnico Eagle.
Suurikuusikon kaivos, also known as the Kittilä Mine, is the largest gold mine in Europe, located approximately 50 kilometres northeast of Kittilä town centre near the village of Kiistala in Finnish Lapland. The deposit was discovered in March 1986 when a road construction cutting at Vuomajärvi exposed a quartz-carbonate vein bearing visible gold. The Geologian tutkimuskeskus (GTK) investigated the deposit until 1998, when it was sold to Swedish exploration company Riddarhyttan Resources AB.
Canadian mining company Agnico Eagle Mines acquired Riddarhyttan in stages in 2004 and 2005. Construction began in 2006 following a feasibility study, open-pit ore extraction commenced in May 2008, and the first doré bars were poured in January 2009. Underground mining began in October 2010, and by November 2012 all production had transferred underground.
As of 2022 the mine employed around 1,100 people. Production surpassed two million ounces of gold in February 2021.
The Suurikuusikko gold deposit was first identified on 18 March 1986, when GTK field workers Pekka Puhakka and Jorma Valkama discovered a quartz-carbonate vein bearing visible gold in arsenopyrite matrix during a road realignment cutting at Kiistalan Vuomajärvi. Geologist Ilkka Härkönen led subsequent investigations that established the extent of the orebody. GTK studied the deposit from 1986 until 1998.
The ore body is hosted by mafic pyroclastic volcanics of the Kittilän vihreäkivivyöhyke (Kittilä greenstone belt), with a geological age exceeding two billion years; the gold occurs in quartz vein swarms associated with the Kiistala shear zone as refractory, invisible gold within arsenopyrite lattices, requiring autoclave oxidation and cyanide leaching for recovery. The known gold-bearing structure has a strike length of approximately 15 kilometres. In 1998, following a public tender process administered by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Riddarhyttan Resources AB of Sweden acquired the valtausoikeudet (exploration rights) to the deposit.
Riddarhyttan continued geological surveys, and in 2003 obtained environmental permits for both open-pit and underground mining. In 2004 Agnico Eagle Mines Limited of Canada acquired a 14 per cent stake in Riddarhyttan, and in November 2005 purchased the remainder of the company. In 2006 a feasibility study was presented to the Agnico Eagle board, which in June approved construction.
Surface work and open-pit excavation began in 2006. The mine concession area covered 840 hectares across 16 land parcels, of which one third was state land. Ore extraction from the Suurikuusikko open pit commenced in May 2008, mineral processing began in August 2008, and the construction phase concluded by the end of 2008.
The first doré bars were poured in January 2009, and an official inauguration was held in June 2009. Steady production was established in 2010, with underground mining beginning in October 2010. Open-pit extraction at the main Suurikuusikko pit concluded in 2012, after which all ore was sourced from underground.
A paste-fill plant was commissioned in 2012 and a new processing plant in autumn 2014. A major investment programme running from 2018 was completed in 2023 and included raising processing capacity from 1.6 to 2 million tonnes per year, sinking a new hoisting shaft to over 1,000 metres depth, and commissioning a new water treatment plant. In 2021 cumulative gold production surpassed two million ounces.
Annual gold production reached approximately 7,290 kilograms in 2023, the second-highest in the mine's history. As of 2023 the company's tax footprint in Finland was approximately 53 million euros. Ore reserves support continued production at least to 2034, with ongoing exploration drilling extending the known orebody to greater depths.
The mine employed around 1,100 people as of 2022, roughly half directly by Agnico Eagle Finland Oy and half through contractors.