Sweden relocates entire town due to mining
State-owned company LKAB operates the world's largest underground iron ore mine, which is causing Kiruna to sink.
BarcelonaIn Sweden, if you want to find the center of a city, the most effective way is usually to search for the location of Espresso House, a Starbucks-style coffee chain ubiquitous in the country. In Kiruna, in the far north of the country, the search for Espresso House takes you away from the historic center, about four kilometers away, to where this small town is relocating. This is where the world's largest underground iron ore mine is located. Active since 1898, it is forcing the city to relocate, gradually sinking.
This Tuesday, the relocation of Kiruna's most emblematic building, its iconic red wooden church, began. Measuring 40 meters high, 40 meters wide, and weighing more than 670 tons, it has been loaded onto a giant trailer to be moved to what will be its new location, about five kilometers away, 113 years after it was built.
Over the past year, work has been done to widen the road just to accommodate the building, the largest to be relocated as part of the urban transformation that began to be planned more than 20 years ago. So far, 23 cultural buildings have been relocated. The church, which has been meticulously prepared over the past eight years, has become an event in its own right, broadcast live on Sweden's public broadcaster. The temple moves at a pace of half a kilometer per hour and is scheduled to reach its destination this Wednesday afternoon.
"Now we leave the church in God's hands," said Bishop Åsa Nyström shortly before 8 a.m. after blessing it before the start of the journey, watched by thousands of people.
A budget of billions
This massive logistical operation was managed and financed by LKAB, the state-owned company that operates the mine. In 2004, LKAB informed the local authorities of Kiruna that the town center needed to be relocated. This was a consequence of having decided to continue mining operations at a new level, 1,365 meters deep. Exploiting iron ore at these depths causes ground deformations, and there is a risk of subsidence and collapse.
Every morning, ten explosions are carried out to loosen the ore, triggering small earthquakes that, over the decades, have created a huge sinkhole next to the town, which was founded and grew up around the mine, one of the country's productive engines. LKAB produces 80% of Europe's iron ore and plans to continue expanding its operations over the coming decades.
The city of Kiruna was born at the end of the 19th century, when the iron ore deposits began to be exploited. Until then, it was an area inhabited by Sami communities, the indigenous people of northern Sweden, Finland, Norway, and the Russian Kola Peninsula. Mining operations have disrupted their ancestral way of life, which focused mainly on reindeer herding, since the area's transport infrastructure has been developed to meet the needs of the mine without taking into account the animals' migration routes.
The company plans to further expand its mining activities in Kiruna, not only to continue extracting iron, but also rare earths. despite opposition from indigenous communities in the area.
LKAB is investing billions in the construction of the new town. It is estimated that it has spent around 500 million Swedish kronor (about 45 million euros) to relocate the church alone, although the company has not disclosed its cost.
Some of Kiruna's characteristic colorful houses have already been relocated to the new town, which was inaugurated in 2022. Others have been demolished. The relocation process will continue over the next ten years, although only in the part of the town at risk of collapse—at least according to current forecasts: around 3,000 homes and 6,000 residents. In addition, five hotels, a hospital, a high school, and 450,000 square meters of public and commercial space will be relocated. It is planned that by 2035, the current town center will be dismantled and the new urbanized center will be complete.
"It's a shame, they're very old houses with a lot of history," said Elisabeth, a shop assistant at Centrum, a historic Kiruna store founded in 1925 and now located in the new shopping center, in the ARA on a freezing February morning. She showed a model of the store's original building, which no longer exists. "But what can we do? If we want to live here, we have to accept it," she said resignedly. She did admit, however, that "for commerce, it's better now, with all the stores together in the same gallery."
"Of course it's a shame, but everything is new now and works well. Before, they didn't fix things that broke because the city had to be rebuilt," said a pragmatic Britta Elisabeth, manager of another store in Kiruna's new shopping center, the souvenir shop.
LKAB is responsible for finding new homes for residents affected by the city's relocation. For those who rent, a new home is found in the new area, and if the price is higher, the company pays the difference over eight years. Residents who own their own homes are paid an additional 25% of the property's market value. The company is carrying out the same process about 130 kilometers south, in Gällivare, where another large underground iron ore mine operates, and where some 4,000 residents have also had to relocate for the same reason.