Drillcon SMOY

75 YEARS OF GEOLOGICAL CONTRACTING

75 years of Suomen Malmi Oy:
From exploration into a multi-skilled corporation

Suomen Malmi Oy was established in 1935 as a part of the industrial policy of the State of Finland. The country was gradually recovering from a deep recession and the state was looking for means to boost the economy. The mining industry looked promising. Suomen Malmi was given the task to prospect for ore and minerals, research them and start mining operations. Competent labour was difficult to find, so the company struggled through the early years and the wartimes with a very small staff. After the wars the company discovered ore deposits that could be mined commercially. Due to a shortage of capital the company had to sell the mining rights to Outokumpu Ltd., however.

In the 1960s, Finnish ore prospecting was rationalised by dissolving overlapping functions and organisations. Suomen Malmi Oy stopped independent prospecting and started to sell ore prospecting services to outsiders. During the first few decades Suomen Malmi explored several promising deposits around the country. Some of these led to mining activities.

Ore exploration in Finland was cut back in the 1980s. The drilling and surveying activities of Rautaruukki and Outokumpu were contracted to Suomen Malmi. A corresponding contract was awarded through a bidding competition for a part of the drilling and surveying activities of the Geological Survey of Finland.

In 1991, Suomen Malmi was privatised. The shares were sold to the Managing Director of the company, Pekka Mikkola, and to Esko With, Head of Department, who had bid for them. In 2007 Smoy was acquired by the Swedish Drillcon AB (www.drillcon.se) and is now a company in the Drillcon Group.

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