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specialty steels, products that have tended to maintain the value of Sweden's total steel imports in the face of declining markets.

b. Nonferrous metals

Ores for a number of important nonferrous metals are obtained from domestic deposits, but only a few of these are extensive enough to satisfy total domestic needs. Sweden exports large amounts of lead ores and concentrates and produces enough lead for domestic requirements. Exports of zinc ores and concentrates are substantial, but much of the zinc metal used is imported. Imported copper is used to produce semimanufactures and finished products in quantities of increasing significance. Sweden is Europe's largest producer and exporter of selenium, a semiconductor metal. The country exports some silver but is a net importer of gold. Sweden is generally dependent on imports for other nonferrous ores and semirefined metals.

Dominating the Swedish nonferrous mining industry, Boliden AB accounts for close to 90% of mine and smelter output of lead, zinc, and silver. The company's lead mining and processing complex at Laisvall, with some of the largest and richest ore deposits in the world, produced 41,600 tons of lead concentrates in 1969. Most of Boliden's production of zinc concentrates and zinc canker (85,400 metric tons in 1969) and part of the lead concentrates are exported, mainly to the Norwegian smelter of Det Norske Zinkkompani A/S which is 50% owned by Boliden. The remaining zinc concentrates and all of the copper concentrates produced are normally sent to the Boliden smelting complex at Ronnskar. The Ronnskar works include copper and lead smelters, a precious metals refinery, an arsenic refinery, a selenium refinery, a slag-fuming plant, and a new sulfuric acid plant.

Production of refined copper has grown rapidly over the past decade, rising from 21,706 tons in 1960 to 39,138 tons in 1969, with both Boliden and Granges obtaining increasing supplies of ore abroad. In addition to its 1971 acquisition of a 35% holding in Canada's Atlantic Nickel Mines, Ltd. Boliden holds 25% interest in Canada's Jameland Mines, Ltd. In 1971 Granges formed a consortium with an Australian firm, Mining Corporation Exploitation, and a U.S. firm, Cities Service, to search primarily for copper, but also for nickel and other alloys, in Australia. Granges also acquired a 15% holding in 1969 in Bethlehem Copper of Canada and is engaged with U.S. and French interests in exploiting copper deposits in Peru. Domestically, LKAB and the government holding company, Statsforetag AB, formed a joint company in 1970 to mine copper deposits in the Stekenjokk field beginning in the fall of 1973. So far LKAB tests have shown 20 million tons of ore in the area (1.3% copper, 3% zinc, and some silver), that will ease the demand for foreign ore.

Sweden has no commercial reserves of aluminum raw materials, but the availability of low-cost electric power has made smelting of imported alumina, chiefly from Jamaica, economically feasible. Domestic smelter output, however, has not been sufficient to meet the rapidly growing demand for aluminum. Swedish rolling-mill capacity exceeds ingot capacity by a considerable margin. Although Sweden exports small amounts of aluminum, domestic requirements necessitate imports of both ingots and semimanufactures. Svenska Aluminum AB (a subsidiary of Svenska Metalverken AB) is the country's sole producer of primary aluminum. The company's Sundsval and Kubikenborg plants produced 64,500 metric tons of primary aluminum in 1970, both alloyed and nonalloyed.

Svenska Metalverken AB, controlled by Granges, is the largest processor of nonferrous metal ingots in the country. Its production also includes semifinished and finished goods of copper, lead, zinc, zinc alloys, aluminum, and aluminum alloys. The company's Vasteras works produces mainly copper and copper alloy strips, sheets, plates, bars, rods, and wires, while the Finspang plant specializes in a wide variety of copper, brass, and bronze semifinished tubing, as well as semifinished nickel-silver items.

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090018-7