The town of Kiruna is sitting on iron ore and rare earth minerals.
Photographer: Erika Gerdemark/Bloomberg
Swedish Mining Town Pays Price for Europe’s Raw Material Need
Residents of Kiruna must move because of an expanding mine
Tanja Mattila and her husband had just splashed out about $300,000 on a new home on the outskirts of Kiruna in Northern Sweden when a letter arrived from the state-owned mining firm LKAB.
The wood-clad house is in an area that’s likely to become unsafe because of movement underground, and they’ll have to move. The couple had just relocated from a flat that’s also due to be destroyed within a few years.