Since the beginning of the year, I am no longer working at my home department, Styling and Vehicle Ergonomics. Now I am working at Scania Mining, Sales & Marketing. It really is a fascinating industry and there is so much I have to learn to be able to solve my assignment! And therefore, I was on a business trip last week. Me and two of my colleagues visited one of the world’s largest underground mines. Malmberget is located in Gällivare in the north of Sweden. Already when arriving at the airport, you know that you have come to the right place for mining.

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Much of this visit fascinated me. And I am not only talking about the temperature differences above ground (-27) and underground (+18). In some strange way, being 1250 meter underground felt totally natural! 1250 meter is a long way. Imagine how huge a skyscraper would be if it was 1250 meters high! Life underground can be compared to a skyscraper, because even 1250 meters underground there is a restaurant. And the offices and staff rooms look like if they were in a “real house”. It is like being in any other office. Though with the difference that in this office you have to carry a personal transmitter with you all the time. And that small difference that you have no daylight down there. And the fact that you have to wear a protective helmet, and steel toe boots. Another thing that we noticed is how quickly you lose references to where you are. A slope with an incline of maybe 15 degrees quickly feel like 5-6 degrees, since you have no references to what is 0 degrees.

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With all these passages and various plateaus in the mine, it is very easy to not have a clue of where you are. But of course there are directional signs. They do not always look like we are used to. Sometimes it’s a sign, sometimes it’s something written on a wall and in some places there is a stick man or another drawing on the wall that helps one to at least remember that one has been there before. And to show up with a mobile phone that is not operated by Telia and think that you will be able to communicate down there will only disapoint you. In other words, don’t get lost! You can’t call for help! 😉

Going on a business trip like this one is invaluable. You learn so much new that will be useful not only in the workplace. My head is now filled with new knowledge about mining, logistics, how our trucks are used and knowledge about our customers. I have met our heroes, and I mean not only the Scania’s heroes, I mean ours, everyone’s. Those who spend their working life 1250 meters underground, and are providing the world with what we need so that we can continue to build bridges and houses. For if it were not for them, and all others who work in the mining industry, the world would not look like it does today, and it would not continue to develop. You cannot even nail together some planks without mining! Where do you think the nails come from? We would not be able to talk to each other on the phone or send an email without it. Much in our world starts somewhere in the soil, with the people and machines that dig up minerals that we build our lives with. Much of the world starts with mining and that is something that you normally don’t think of, right?

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There is something special to stand there in the mud, one kilometer underground and feel the power when the wheel loader fills the truck bed with 50 tons of ore. If there is any time a truck is pushed to its limits, it’s when it is driven off road, with overload, up and down in steep hills.

I left Gällivare even prouder. This is what we do. This is Scania.