Malmberget ("The Ore Mountain", Finnish and

Meänkieli (literally 'our language'), or Tornedalian is a Finnic language or a group of distinct Finnish dialects spoken in the northernmost part of Sweden, particularly along the Torne River Valley. It is officially recognized in Sweden as one of the ...

: ''Malmivaara'') is a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

and mining town situated in

Gällivare Municipality Gällivare Municipality (; or ; ; ) is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden. Its seat is Gällivare. It is the third largest municipality in Sweden. Gällivare Lapland Airport is the only airport in the region able to accommod ...

Norrbotten County Norrbotten County (, Meänkieli/, ) is the northernmost county or '' län'' of Sweden. It is also the largest county by land area, almost a quarter of Sweden's total area. It shares borders with Västerbotten County to the southwest, the Gulf ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. It had 5,590 inhabitants in 2010, reduced to 927 by December 2020. It is situated 5 kilometres from the municipal seat of

Gällivare Gällivare (; ; or ; or ; ) is a locality and the seat of Gällivare Municipality in Norrbotten County, province of Lapland, Sweden with 8,449 inhabitants in 2010. The town was founded in the 17th century. Together with nearby towns Malmberget ...

. The entire Malmberget town was moved in 2020/2021 due to mining activities in the area. Malmberget is known as a major site for the extraction of

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

from deep mines by Swedish mining company

LKAB Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag (LKAB) is a state-owned Swedish mining company. The company mines iron ore at Kiruna and at Malmberget in northern Sweden. The company was established in 1890, and has been 100% state-owned since the 1950s. Th ...

. Iron ore mining started in 1741 at Illuvaara mountain, later known as ''

Malmberg'' and eventually just ''Malmberget''. The first train transporting iron ore was loaded in 1888 - the beginning of the great iron ore rush that would change the entire area of Northern Lapland. In Malmberget there was plentiful employment, but no dwellings - a striking resemblance to the conditions during some of the gold rushes in North America. During the first years, workers lived in shacks built from waste dynamite

crate A crate is a large shipping container, often made of wood, typically used to transport or store large, heavy items. Steel and aluminium crates are also used. Specialized crates were designed for specific products, and were often made to be reus ...

s. In the centre of Malmberget, the deep mine has reached daylight and created a large hole called ''Kaptensgropen'' ("The Captain's Pit"). In March 2012, ''Kaptensgropen'' was joined with a new pit resulting from the planned sub-level caving of the Fabian deposit, and has grown southwards as the deep mining continues, dividing the town and making the old town centre uninhabitable, forcing many institutions, such as two cinemas and a church, to move to the western part of Malmberget or, even more commonly, to the neighbouring town of

. Today ''Kaptensgropen'' is being back-filled with waste rock produced by the underground mines. ''Kaptensgropen'' will eventually be filled in, but the uninhabitable area is continually growing as underground mining undermines the area and seismic events caused by the mining regularly shake the remaining parts of Malmberget. The future of Malmberget was for a long time uncertain, but exploration by LKAB indicated that even more of Malmberget may need to be moved in the future. The moving of several large residential houses owned by the mining company, as well as private villas, has been a major issue locally for the past few years. The iron ore extracted from Malmberget is transported by rail southeast to the port of

Luleå Luleå ( , , locally ; ; ) is a Cities in Sweden, city on the coast of northern Sweden, and the County Administrative Boards of Sweden, capital of Norrbotten County, the northernmost county in Sweden. Luleå has 48,728 inhabitants in its urban ...

Sports

Malmberget's largest sports association is named Malmbergets allmänna idrottsförening (MAIF) which has an athletic tradition spanning more than a hundred years. MAIF's colors are green and white. The local football club is

Gällivare Malmbergets FF Gällivare Malmbergets FF is a Swedish Association football, football club in Gällivare. Background Since its foundation in 2005, Gällivare Malmbergets FF has participated in the middle divisions of the Swedish football league system. The clu ...

. The famous Track and field athlete, Ruth Svedberg, was born here

References

{{authority control Populated places in Gällivare Municipality Lapland (Sweden) Populated places in Arctic Sweden

Sports

See also

References