Today, Kiruna is not as dependent on the mining activity as it was in the beginning. Other branches of industry have been successfully developed.

But, with almost 30 % of Kiruna’s workforce being employed in businesses connected to the mine, the community is affected by the business cycle of LKAB.

Read more about research and industry here.

As long as there is a need for steel, LKAB will keep on mining the iron ore in Kiruna. This means that the spreading of deformations will progress and therefore parts of Kiruna C have to be moved or relocated. 

A unique project

The transformation of Kiruna C is a unique project, at least on such a large scale. Coal mining in Germany have forced the relocation of a number of smaller villages since 1924.

Kiruna, on the other hand, is facing greater problems. Here we need to build up a new city centre and new residential areas, which in turn demands construction of a new infrastructure, such as water and sewage systems and electricity supply systems.

The planners of Kiruna have therefore no partners to dialogue with, which they can share similar experiences with. But perhaps Kiruna can be a model for other cities in  the future, considering the climate change and the threat of rising sea levels that perhaps will force cities to move to safer ground.

Model city number 2

The municipality of Kiruna has a clear political will to firmly hold on to and improve Hjalmar Lundbohm´s vision of Kiruna as a model city. The founder of Kiruna wanted to build a modern community adapted to the environment, the people and the special climate of Kiruna.

The Vision of the municipality is formulated as follows:

“We see the vision of the future city of Kiruna as a unique city settlement in continuous development in agreement with today’s and future demands of a high-tech model city, an ecological community in an arctic environment.”

Read more about a town planned from the start.