Qualla: Kiruna Mine

Kiruna Mine: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JIP, Talk, CC BY-SA 3.0. Somewhere beneath Kiruna, Sweden, there is a void where a mountain used to be. The ore body at Kiirunavaara -- four kilometers long, up to 120 meters thick, plunging at least two kilometers into the Earth -- has been mined continuously since 1898. Over 950 million tonnes of iron ore have been hauled out. In 2018 alone, production reached 26.9 million tonnes. On May 18, 2020, the rock shifted: a mining-induced earthquake of magnitude 4.9 shook the region, a visceral reminder that removing this much material from the Earth's crust has consequences. The most visible consequence is happening on the surface, where the entire city of Kiruna is being moved to avoid collapsing into the mine that created it.

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Image: JIP | Talk | CC BY-SA 3.0

Kiruna Mine: What Lies Below

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, CC0. The Kiruna ore is predominantly magnetite interspersed with apatite, averaging 0.9 percent phosphorus. Before mining began, the ore sheet stretched four kilometers across the surface and averaged 90 meters in width. Geophysical surveys suggest it continues as a coherent body at l...

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Image: Unknown author | CC0

Kiruna Mine: From Open Pit to the Deep

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Surface mining came first. Workers carved into the mountainside of Kiirunavaara in the final years of the nineteenth century, and in 1902 the completion of the Kiruna-Narvik railway opened a route to the ice-free Norwegian port of Narvik, making year-round ore shipment possible. ...

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Image: Public domain

Kiruna Mine: Moving a City

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Johan Arvelius, CC BY 2.5. Sublevel caving is efficient but destructive. As underground chambers collapse to release ore, the ground above subsides. By 2004, mining-related subsidence had crept close enough to Kiruna's city center that a decision could no longer be deferred: the town would have to move. In...

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Image: Johan Arvelius | CC BY 2.5

Kiruna Mine: Iron and Empire

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mustis12345, CC BY-SA 4.0. LKAB, the state-owned mining company that operates the Kiruna mine, is more than a commercial enterprise -- it is one of the pillars on which modern Sweden was built. Swedish iron ore, shipped through Narvik and the Baltic port of Lulea, fed the steel mills of Europe through two ...

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Image: Mustis12345 | CC BY-SA 4.0