The LKAB facility in Kiruna, Sweden. The corporate stated on Jan. 12 that it discovered Europe’s largest identified 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 challenge 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 A brand new house is being created about 3 kilometers east of the outdated city as a part of a multi-decade course of that is anticipated to be accomplished by 2035.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 additionally it’s a small city like so many others — combating what they’re combating and challenged by being so depending on one firm,” Jennie Sjöholm, senior lecturer at Sweden’s College of Gothenburg, advised 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 vital European house 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 properties ultimately as a result of we’re depending on this mining trade.
Mats Taaveniku
Chairman of the municipal council in Kiruna
LKAB is small in world phrases however a extremely vital 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 not too long ago recognized considered one of Europe’s largest identified 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 issues. Certainly, each the municipality and LKAB have known as for higher monetary assist from the state, in addition to the discharge of extra land to accommodate the transformation.
Others have additionally flagged issues concerning the relationship between useful resource extraction and group sustainability, significantly concerning the potential influence on indigenous Sami reindeer herding and tradition.
On this aerial view, the Kiruna Kyrka church is transported by street to a brand new location on August 20, 2025 in Kiruna, Sweden. The church, weighing 672,4 tons, is being transported as a complete to a brand new location 3 km away to keep away from damages attributable to LKAB´s iron ore mine.
Bernd Lauter | Getty Photos Information | Getty Photos
Town’s relocation, which was first deliberate in 2004, acquired worldwide consideration in August 2025 through the spectacular transfer 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 introduced the growth of its iron ore mine would require the relocation of a further 6,000 folks and a couple of,700 properties. The mining firm, which is chargeable 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, advised CNBC that these being requested to relocate had been being provided the market worth of their property, plus a further 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 viewpoint, 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 might have conflicts with reindeer herding, conflicts with protection, conflicts with nature, etcetera,” he added.
‘We reside on the minerals’
Mats Taaveniku, chairman of the municipal council in Kiruna, described town’s relocation as a “enormous challenge,” that would yield main alternatives for European residents for many years to come back.
A profitable end result, he added, hinges partially on higher monetary and political assist from each the Swedish authorities and the European Union.
“Now we have what we are able to name an enormous battle between the municipality and LKAB, and the municipality and our personal authorities,” Taaveniku advised CNBC by video name.
“The EU has to step as much as assist us. It isn’t sufficient to decide that we’ve important and strategic minerals. They should assist us with political statements and cash, after all,” he added.
CNBC has contacted spokespeople for the Swedish authorities and the European Fee, the EU’s govt arm.
A foundry employee handles molten metallic on the Betsaide plant, which primarily serves the automotive trade, in Elorrio, on Could 26, 2025.
Ander Gillenea | Afp | Getty Photos
The EU, for its half, has acknowledged LKAB’s new uncommon earths deposit as strategically vital underneath its Important Uncooked Supplies Act, a coverage that goals for home manufacturing to fulfill 40% of the area’s annual demand by 2030.
Requested how Kiruna residents have reacted to the relocation effort, Taaveniku stated: “Among the residents are unhappy as a result of they are going to lose a whole lot of recollections. They’ve grown up in a home for 2 or perhaps three generations, so that is unhappy.”
“However alternatively, all people is aware of, we reside on the minerals,” he stated. “Kiruna is constructed on the minerals, so each resident in Kiruna is aware of that we’ve to maneuver from our properties ultimately as a result of we’re depending on this mining trade.”
Out within the chilly?
For these on the transfer, one side that has raised issues is that Kiruna’s new metropolis could also be as much as 10 levels Celsius colder within the winter.
A examine by the College of Gothenburg discovered that Kiruna’s new metropolis heart is specified by a grid sample in an space the place chilly air collects, with tall buildings and slender streets, that means that the low solar will probably have problem reaching the bottom for a lot of months of the 12 months.
A employee is pictured within the underground tunnels of the LKAB iron ore mine in Kiruna, northern Sweden, on August 21, 2025.
Jonathan Nackstrand | Afp | Getty Photos
“Kiruna is a winter metropolis. It is a chilly, Arctic metropolis. The winters are lengthy, and you’ve got a protracted snow season. It’s not often -35 [degrees Celsius] however it could possibly be that chilly for a time period in mid-winter and it is a very large distinction between -15, which isn’t unusual, and -25,” Sjöholm stated. A constructed heritage specialist, Sjöholm has been following the work on town’s relocation for 25 years.
“It is already a protracted winter season and if it is chilly, human consolation decreases but additionally issues get extra fragile, so to talk,” she added.
