The LKAB facility in Kiruna, Sweden. The corporate stated on Jan. 12 that it discovered Europe’s largest recognized deposit of uncommon earth parts there.
Jonas Ekstromer | Afp | Getty Photos
The ripple results from Europe’s rising urge for food for uncooked supplies lengthen all the best way to Sweden’s far north.
1000’s of residents and buildings are being uprooted in Kiruna, a metropolis that lies 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the Arctic Circle. The relocation venture is regarded as one of many world’s most radical city transformations.
Kiruna is bodily on the transfer due to floor subsidence from the growth of a sprawling underground iron ore mine. A brand new house is being created about 3 kilometers east of the outdated city as a part of a multi-decade course of that is anticipated to be accomplished by 2035.
“It is a spot that would appear unique to so many and, in a method, I assume it’s, but in addition it’s a small city like so many others — fighting what they’re fighting and challenged by being so depending on one firm,” Jennie Sjöholm, senior lecturer at Sweden’s College of Gothenburg, instructed CNBC by video name.
Established 125 years in the past as a metropolis for the iron ore mining operations of state-owned agency LKAB, Kiruna is a small group that serves as each a significant European space hub and residential to the world’s largest underground iron ore mine.
Each resident in Kiruna is aware of that we’ve to maneuver from our houses ultimately as a result of we’re depending on this mining business.
Mats Taaveniku
Chairman of the municipal council in Kiruna
LKAB is small in world phrases however a extremely important regional participant, accounting for 80% of all iron ore mined within the European Union.
Alongside its iron ore operations, that are integral to the steel-making course of, LKAB just lately identified one in all Europe’s largest recognized deposits of uncommon earths, additional strengthening its place within the extraction of important supplies for the inexperienced transition.
Transferring a metropolis
There are a number of obstacles to the profitable relocation of Kiruna, with gamers throughout the spectrum elevating political, financial and environmental considerations. Certainly, each the municipality and LKAB have referred to as for better monetary assist from the state, in addition to the discharge of extra land to accommodate the transformation.
Others have additionally flagged concerns in regards to the relationship between useful resource extraction and group sustainability, significantly concerning the potential impact on indigenous Sami reindeer herding and tradition.
On this aerial view, the Kiruna Kyrka church is transported by highway to a brand new location on August 20, 2025 in Kiruna, Sweden. The church, weighing 672,4 tons, is being transported as an entire to a brand new location 3 km away to keep away from damages brought on by LKAB´s iron ore mine.
Bernd Lauter | Getty Photos Information | Getty Photos
Town’s relocation, which was first deliberate in 2004, obtained worldwide consideration in August 2025 through the spectacular move of its iconic Kiruna Church. In a feat of engineering, the 113-year-old timber constructing was moved in its entirety by specialised trailers over a interval of two days.
At across the similar time, nonetheless, LKAB additionally announced the growth of its iron ore mine would require the relocation of an extra 6,000 individuals and a pair of,700 houses. The mining firm, which is answerable for the transfer, has estimated compensation prices of twenty-two.5 billion SEK ($2.4 billion) over the following 10 years.
Niklas Johansson, senior vice chairman of public affairs and exterior relations at LKAB, instructed CNBC that these being requested to relocate have been being supplied the market worth of their property, plus an extra 25%, or the development of a brand new dwelling. Round 90% have elected to take a brand new home, Johansson stated.
“The issue in the mean time is that the native municipality has little or no land that they personal [or] that they will make, from an administrative perspective, buildable,” Johansson stated.
“They’ve had to purchase land from the state, who owns many of the land above the Arctic Circle. And right here you may have conflicts with reindeer herding, conflicts with protection, conflicts with nature, etcetera,” he added.
‘We stay on the minerals’
Mats Taaveniku, chairman of the municipal council in Kiruna, described the town’s relocation as a “large venture,” that would yield main alternatives for European residents for many years to return.
A profitable final result, he added, hinges partly on better monetary and political assist from each the Swedish authorities and the European Union.
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