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Mines/Sweden

Kiruna mine

Kiruna mine, Sweden. Producing, underground, mining iron ore.

Why Kiruna is famous

Kiruna in Swedish Lapland is a large underground iron-ore mine of LKAB, a company founded in 1890. Underground mining has run since the 1950s and the main haulage level is now at 1,365 m.1,2

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 1890LKAB founded3
  2. 2004Kiruna relocation announced4

Kiruna today

Where iron ore is mined todayMining in Sweden

Where next

Events

Led toLKAB foundedRead what happened near Kiruna: LKAB founded.1Led toKiruna relocation announcedRead what happened near Kiruna: Kiruna relocation announced.1

Places

Located inKirunaKiruna is about 5 km from Kiruna.1

Trade routes

Shipped through hereKiruna iron ore to Lulea (Iron Ore Line)The route touches Kiruna.8Shipped through hereKiruna iron ore to Narvik (Ofoten Line)The route touches Kiruna.8Shipped through hereSwedish iron ore to Germany in the Second World WarThe route touches Kiruna.5

Sources

  1. Annual and Sustainability Report 2025 LKAB
  2. data/minerals/operations.csv Prospector Trails (internal)
  3. A history of LKAB
  4. Moving a town to save a mine: the story of Kiruna (2019) Mining Technology
  5. Foreign Relations of the United States 1944 vol. IV, document 443 (Swedish iron ore exports) US Department of State, Office of the Historian
  6. Wikidata item Q2602547 (Kiruna Mine: inception)
  7. Wikidata item Q1082916 (Ofoten Line opens (Narvik))
  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.

Keep exploring

Stories with these minerals

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

All mining storiesThe world runs on rockAll mineralsMining by country

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).