Sweden moves entire church across Kiruna city for mine expansion

Sweden’s landmark Kiruna Church begins a two-day travel to a caller home, inching down an Arctic roadworthy to prevention its woody walls from crushed subsidence and the enlargement of the world’s largest underground robust ore mine.

Workers person jacked up the 600-tonne, 113-year-old religion from its foundations and hefted it onto a specially built trailer – portion of a 30-year task to relocate thousands of radical and buildings from the metropolis of Kiruna successful the portion of Lapland.

Mine relation LKAB has spent the past twelvemonth widening the roadworthy for the journey, which volition instrumentality the red-painted religion – 1 of Sweden’s largest woody structures, often voted its astir beauteous – 5km (3 miles) down a winding way to a marque caller Kiruna metropolis centre.

The journey, which begins connected Tuesday, volition prevention the religion but region it from the tract wherever it has stood for much than a century.

“The religion is Kiruna’s psyche successful immoderate way, and successful immoderate mode it’s a harmless place,” Lena Tjarnberg, the vicar of Kiruna, said. “For me, it’s similar a time of joy, but I deliberation radical besides consciousness bittersweet due to the fact that we person to permission this place.”

For galore of the region’s Indigenous Sami community, which has herded reindeer determination for thousands of years, the feelings are little mixed. The determination is simply a reminder of overmuch wider changes brought connected by the enlargement of mining.

“This country is accepted Sami land,” Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen, seat of the section Gabna Sami community, said. “This country was grazing onshore and besides a onshore wherever the calves of the reindeer were born.”

If plans for different adjacent excavation spell up aft the move, that would chopped the way from the reindeer’s summertime and wintertime pastures, making herding “impossible” successful the future, helium said.

“Fifty years ago, my great-grandfather said the excavation is going to devour up our mode of life, our reindeer herding. And helium was right,” helium added.

The religion is conscionable 1 tiny portion of the relocation project.

What next?

LKAB says astir 3,000 homes and astir 6,000 radical request to move. A fig of nationalist and commercialized buildings are being demolished, portion some, similar the church, are being moved successful 1 piece.

Other buildings are being dismantled and rebuilt astir the caller metropolis centre. Hundreds of caller homes, shops, and a caller metropolis hallway person besides been constructed.

The displacement should let LKAB, which produces 80 percent of the robust ore mined successful Europe, to proceed to widen the cognition of Kiruna for decades to come.

The state-owned steadfast has brought up astir 2 cardinal tonnes of ore since the 1890s, chiefly from the Kiruna mine. Mineral resources are estimated astatine different six cardinal tonnes successful Kiruna and adjacent Svappavaara and Malmberget.

LKAB is present readying the caller excavation adjacent to the existing Kiruna site.

Rare world elements

As good arsenic robust ore, the projected Per Geijer excavation contains important deposits of uncommon world elements – a radical of 17 metals captious to products ranging from lasers to iPhones, and greenish exertion cardinal to gathering Europe’s clime goals.

Europe – and overmuch of the remainder of the satellite – is presently astir wholly babelike connected China for the proviso and processing of uncommon earths.

In March this year, the European Union designated Per Geijer arsenic a strategical project, which could assistance to velocity up the process of getting the caller excavation into production.

About 5km (3 miles) down the road, Kiruna’s caller metropolis centre volition besides beryllium taking shape.

“The religion is … a connection oregon a awesome for this metropolis transformation,” politician Mats Taaveniku said. “We are close present halfway there. We person 10 years near to determination the remainder of the city.”