This article was first published in Stockholm News 2010-07-28
The world’s largest under ground iron ore mine in located in Kiruna in north Sweden. The mine is extremely profitable. LKAB, the state owned company which runs the mine, is expected to show a SEK 10 billion (1 billion euro) profit in 2010. Stockholm News has paid a visit to the mine.
Kiruna is a small city situated roughly 1240 kilometers from Stockholm (see map). 18 000 people live in the city and 5 000 more in the whole municipality. Many of them works with the mine. Actually the city itself was built only a little more than hundred years ago because of the mining. Now there are plans to move the whole city center since more iron ore is located under the city’s present location.
The famous church and bell tower in Kiruna. The church was elected the most beautiful building in Sweden in 2001. Photo: Henrik Lindberg
When visiting the mine, they take you about 310 meters down from the ground level. (Officially 540 meters but that is from the top of the mine which is above sea level).
I will not go into details about the techniques for mining; but very briefly: They have a main tunnel on a certain level, currently 1300 meter below the ground. A new main tunnel is built on a new level roughly every 30 years. From the main tunnel, which is four kilometers long and hundred meters wide, several smaller tunnels are built into the string of iron ore. Every night, disruptions are made in order to free pieces of ore.
Photo: Henrik Lindberg
The existence of iron ore in the area has been known since the late 17th century but it took another two hundred years before they started extracting it. One of the problems was of course transportation. In 1888 Malmbanan, ‘the ore rail’ was opened. Malmbanan is a railway that connects Luleå (map) and Narvik in Norway (map) over Kiruna. These two cities are still the destination for ore from Kiruna. From Narvik and Luleå the ore is transported by boat to its different destinations.
LKAB (Luossavaara Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag) has three percent of the world market for iron ore. The currently known stock of ore in the ground will last for another hundred years but there is believed to be even more resources that is still to be found. The name LKAB comes from the two mountain mines. Luossa is an old Sami word for salmon; next to the mountain is a lake with a lot of salmon. The main at Luossavaara is now closed. Kiirunavaara is the still existing mine, the name derives from a Samic word for rock ptarmigan which lived in large numbers on the mountain. ‘Aktiebolag’ basically means ‘limited’, ltd.
Info about the mine and how to book a tour is found here.
Part two of the article can be read here.
