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Events/Company founded · 1890

LKAB founded

Company founded, 1890-12-18, Sweden.

What happened

Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB was founded on 18 December 1890 on the initiative of Robert Schough, who had claimed deposits at Kiruna. Hjalmar Lundbohm became the first managing director.1,2

Why it matters

LKAB built the iron mines and the model town of Kiruna.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. LKAB founded

    LKAB built the iron mines and the model town of Kiruna.1,2

  2. Kiruna Mine: inception

    Kiruna Mine: inception.3

  3. Ofoten Line opens (Narvik)

    Ofoten Line opens (Narvik).4

  4. Lang Hancock born

    Lang Hancock born (date from Wikidata).5

Open the full timeline

Where next

Mines

Located inKirunaSee the mine behind this story: Kiruna.1

Events

Led toKiruna relocation announcedLKAB built the model town in 1890. In 2004 it announced Kiruna would move about 3 km east.6

Places

Located inKirunaSee the nearby place: Kiruna.1

Trade routes

Shipped throughSwedish iron ore to Germany in the Second World WarUnder a 1939 trade agreement Sweden sent about 10 Mt of iron ore a year to Germany.7Shipped throughKiruna iron ore to Narvik (Ofoten Line)Ore goes by rail to Narvik, an ice-free port that handles about two-thirds of LKAB exports.8

Sources

  1. A history of LKAB
  2. Kiruna Mine (item Q2602547), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. Wikidata item Q2602547 (Kiruna Mine: inception)
  4. Wikidata item Q1082916 (Ofoten Line opens (Narvik))
  5. Wikidata item Q1804844 (Lang Hancock)
  6. Moving a town to save a mine: the story of Kiruna (2019) Mining Technology
  7. Foreign Relations of the United States 1944 vol. IV, document 443 (Swedish iron ore exports) US Department of State, Office of the Historian
  8. From mine to port LKAB (Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB)

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Conveyors, rail and ports by Kabelleger / David Gubler, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Kirunavaara gruva, Kiruna., Fotograf okänd, / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).