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Events/Environment · 2004

Kiruna relocation announced

Environment, 2004, Sweden.

What happened

LKAB and the municipality announced the relocation of Kiruna in 2004. The project moves much of the town about 3 km east. A municipal officer said the new city centre opened on 22 November 2018 and that the old centre would move in 2022.1,2,3

Why it matters

It is a case of a town moved because of the mine beneath it.1,2,3

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Blaenavon Industrial Landscape inscribed

    UNESCO World Heritage listing event.4

  2. Kiruna relocation announced

    It is a case of a town moved because of the mine beneath it.1,2,3

  3. Bento Rodrigues dam failure, Mariana, Brazil

    Wikidata records 17 deaths in the tailings dam failure.5

  4. Fundao tailings dam collapse at Mariana

    It is Brazil's worst environmental disaster and led to the largest mining liability cases in the UK and Brazil.6,7,8

  5. Brumadinho dam disaster

    Brumadinho dam disaster. Wikidata records 269 deaths.9

  6. Juukan Gorge rock shelters destroyed

    Rio Tinto's board review followed and its chief executive and two senior executives lost their 2020 bonuses.10,11,12,13

  7. Australia exports 746 Mt of iron ore to China

    USGS records 746 Mt of iron ore including pellets exported to China in 2022.14

  8. Australia mines 980 Mt of iron ore

    USGS estimates 980 million tonnes of crude iron ore from Australian mines in 2025.15

Open the full timeline

Where next

Mines

Located inKirunaSee the mine behind this story: Kiruna.1

Events

Came out ofLKAB foundedLKAB built the model town in 1890. In 2004 it announced Kiruna would move about 3 km east.1

Places

Located inKirunaSee the place where this happened: Kiruna.1

Sources

  1. Moving a town to save a mine: the story of Kiruna (2019) Mining Technology
  2. A history of LKAB
  3. Kiruna (item Q83232), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  4. Blaenavon Industrial Landscape UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  5. Wikidata item Q21402069 (Bento Rodrigues dam disaster)
  6. London judge rules BHP liable for 2015 Brazil dam collapse (14 Nov 2025) The Guardian
  7. Fundao dam disaster report (2017) London Mining Network
  8. Bento Rodrigues dam disaster (item Q21402069), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  9. Wikidata item Q60998244 (Brumadinho dam disaster)
  10. Rio Tinto blasts 46,000-year-old Aboriginal site to expand iron ore mine (26 May 2020) The Guardian
  11. Rio Tinto executives stripped of bonuses over destruction of Juukan Gorge rock shelters (24 Aug 2020) ABC News (Australia)
  12. Rio Tinto publishes board review of cultural heritage management (25 Aug 2020)
  13. Juukan Gorge (item Q102115281), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  14. 2022 Minerals Yearbook: Australia [Advance Release] U.S. Geological Survey
  15. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Iron Ore U.S. Geological Survey

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.

Keep exploring

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The Kiruna iron ore mine drawn in 3D: the ore body dipping under the town, its levels and shafts, at the moment of the nightly blastData storyA day in the life of a mine3D · Kiruna, SwedenCurrent eventsThe TownKiruna, moved for the iron underneathTwo blue electric locomotives pull a long ore train along a lake shore through autumn birch woodsEquipmentConveyors, rail and portsLogistics · Moving oreHistory of miningIron, steel and the Pilbara1856-2025

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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).