Kiruna Sweden is has the largest and most modern iron ore mine in the world. The mine has been operational since 1904 - starting as an open pit mine and the progressing gradually underground following the “ore body” deeper and deeper.
The Kiruna LKAB mine made international news last year when the town’s church was moved a few miles down the road. Moving the church was an important milestone in the 20 year process of moving the part of the town nearest to the mine because the ground under it will inevitably collapse as the mining operations extend underneath the town. As tunnels are abandoned after the ore is extracted, they collapse, making the surface unstable and placing thousands of people in danger.
We entered the mine tour by bus, and were immediately overwhelmed by the massive scale of this mine. By the end of the tour, we were still overwhelmed by the scale, but were impressed by the strong focus on finding innovative solutions to complex technological problems. The mine is working on producing zero emissions iron - which would be very impressive.
The tour took us through massive tunnels, past huge pieces of equipment, demonstrations of mining techniques, and through an interesting museum. It was an eye-opening experience.
In the afternoon we visited the Sami heritage center. After a delicious lunch, we learned about Sami culture, reindeer herding and breeding and a few tribal customs. Then we got to feed some of the reindeer, which was fun - they are very food motivated. In fact, as soon as we entered their fenced field, they surrounded us and gobbled up the handful of food before we could take photos of them eating. Fortunately, if you held out your empty hand they went looking for someone else.
In our way home from the Sami village, we stopped at the world’s first Ice Hotel. While we knew that the Ice hotel was a fun (and expensive) hotel in northern Sweden, we didn’t know that is was basically an ice art gallery. We all donned some very warm ponchos and enjoyed visiting the many different hotel bedrooms. It was beautiful and spectacular.
We had a restful afternoon and dinner at the hotel.
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