Kiruna to be moved over ore and potential ire

With about tenth of its residents employed by the iron miners who once kindled Kiruna's industrial prosperity, the northern town now faces underground cracks pushing it to move the entire town or it faces the potential ire of the important employer.

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Perched on a hill by the iron ore mine it was once built around, the northern Swedish town of Kiruna is in the process of reinventing itself. It has to: in four years, it will have moved somewhere else or face widescale unemployment.

At the turn of the 19th century the area consisted of a handful of ramshackle buildings and traditional "lavoo", the indigenous Sami houses that are similar to the teepee.

But with large-scale mining came industrial prosperity. The town developed further up the slope as new workers arrived and older neighbourhoods were abandoned as the mine encroached on them.

The fortunes of the 23,000 Kiruna residents are still tied to the mine, which today is the world largest iron ore mine. Workers extract enough in a day to build more than six Eiffel Towers.

As the extraction moves deeper, now at a depth of four kilometers, and closer to the town, cracks have begun to appear underground.

In 2004, state-controlled owner LKAB gave local politicians an ultimatum: move the parts of the city centre threatened by collapse if the underground expansion plans went ahead, or risk stifling Kiruna's largest employer.

The company gave the message in a press release, said Ulrika Isaksson, a spokeswoman for the municipality.

"There was an uproar when we found out," she said.

Even though the move would claim only buildings within a one-kilometre radius from the mine, that included most of the town centre.

"It's only 35 percent of the town's total area," said deputy mayor Niklas Siren of the Left Party.

Most buildings will simply be torn down, forcing their inhabitants to pack up and move. Important historical landmarks will be dismantled and reassembled in their entirety at new locations.

"The town centre will shift around three kilometres to the northeast," Isaksson said.

"In four years, things could become very sentimental" she said, looking to the point in the future when the 1960s-era town hall will be taken down.

Then it will be the turn of the train station and the town square to budge. Around 20 years from now, moving Kiruna's church will mark the final phase of the project.

The red exterior echoes the design of the Sami lavoo and has become the pride of Kiruna's inhabitants. It was a gift from LKAB in 1912.

’Yet in the impending din, some hear the sounding bell of renewal.

For the leftwing deputy mayor, the move is not just about recreating Kiruna three kilometres up the road, but also about reinventing the town.

"We are going to build the best possible town centre, vibrant, sustainable and modern," Siren said.

Although LKAB is paying for all the land it will use, the municipality is responsible for the urban planning of the new town. Next year it will choose an its architect.

No detailed timetable is available for the project at the moment. One thing is certain however: In 2018, the new town hall will have been completed and the old one will have given way to a park.

Whereas the demolition of a single building can spark controversy in some towns, the inhabitants of Kiruna seem to be taking things in stride.

People still pull their sleds through the snow-covered streets and there is nothing yet to suggest that in 2035 all of the buildings around them will be gone.

"We know too little," said Anja Jakobsson, 51, without sounding bitter.

"We are in favour of the transformation of the town. The development of the mine means that people in Kiruna will have jobs. But we're worried about our personal finances," she added.

The municipality expects that in all, 2,500 apartments will have to move.

"People are afraid of not having the means (to relocate)," Martti Kivimaeki, an assistant deacon, said, but noted dryly that even though people were worried, they weren't turning to the Church.

LKAB has pledged to buy the affected buildings for 125 percent of their value. "But that's not enough for a new-built house," Jakobsson said.

The company will offer lower rents in the residential properties it owns for a limited period, but not indefinitely, said a spokeswoman, Ylva Sievertsson.

"When you talk to people in Kiruna, you always hear: 'No, but we need the mine.' And with that, the discussion ends," argued Timo Vilgats, a municipal politician for the Green Party, the only one to question the need to move part of the town.

He points to new iron extraction technologies that would not impact what happens above ground.

Sievertsson denied his claims, saying that either the mine grows towards the town centre, or it shuts.

LKAB employs some 2,100 people in Kiruna. Although the company's profit fell 27 percent in the third quarter to 2.5 billion kronor ($373 million), it plans to grow production volumes by 35 percent by 2015.

Camille Bas-Wohler/AFP
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