00:00Kiruna, a mining town located 1,200 kilometers from Sweden's capital Stockholm.
00:08It's March and the city has yet to emerge from the long winter.
00:13What has brought most people here for the past 100 years is work in Europe's largest iron ore mine.
00:20A mine tour.
00:23You can drive several hundred meters deep into its interior by car.
00:29We enter the mine at a 230-meter level, meaning that we are 230 meters under the top of the mountain.
00:36That's the zero point.
00:40We arrive at a depth of more than 1,300 meters in the world's biggest iron ore mine.
00:46A new experience for me.
00:49No dusty, dirty working environment. That probably still exists somewhere.
00:54But state-owned company LKAB is proud of its modern ore mining.
00:59Alexander Falket controls an excavator remotely.
01:05Everything is computer-operated.
01:12It looks like a hotel lounge here, the terminal workers' new office.
01:20The iron ore minerals are delivered to the excavator by remote-controlled jackhammers.
01:27It does depend if it is a diesel-driven or an electrical-driven machine, and it also depends on the raw quality.
01:35Yeah, but this one, for example.
01:37Generally, this machine will get 18 tons per round, so to say.
01:42So on a normal shift that is allowed to continuously run, it could easily produce, say, 2,000 tons.
01:49This mine makes Sweden the 12th largest iron ore producer in the world and a reliable supplier for EU steel producers.
02:03The iron ore is carted away in automated electric trains like this.
02:09The ore contains about 50% iron.
02:20It is finely ground and then melted in rotary kilns.
02:25The operators say that 100% renewable electricity is used.
02:32They want to replace all combustion engines with electric drives.
02:38They aim to create an end product of 100% green sponge iron by 2045.
02:49Yes, we have those discussions already, and the customers of our customers are willing to buy this fossil-free steel.
02:56From Kiruna, a change of scene, to the east coast of Luleå.
03:00LKAB already runs the Hybrit smelting furnace with other industrial partners here.
03:06It uses hydrogen to create a precursor to steel from the raw iron pellets.
03:12And in 2028, the iron ore producer wants to get into the business of making climate-neutral sponge iron itself.
03:20This would further add to its value.
03:23Last year, LKAB made a profit of 1.4 billion euros.
03:28Significant deposits of rare earths have been found nearby.
03:33Now the old mining town is to make way as there are rich deposits of iron ore beneath it.
03:39And right next door, four kilometers away, the new town of Kiruna.
03:44It cost over a billion euros, paid for by the mining company.
03:49So how are the residents coping?
03:53Well, me and myself haven't actually moved my household, but I think it's a new start.
03:58You know, it's a new beginning for a lot of things.
04:00And of course, it stirs up a lot of emotions, a lot of confusion and things.
04:06But it's a new beginning that we can all be a part of in this modern day.
04:11So that's pretty exciting.
04:14I like the detail that is put into it.
04:17If you look at the facades and the little design details,
04:20you can tell that the architect has kind of done the research on the town.
04:26Around 6,000 residents must relocate.
04:29Construction will only take 10 years,
04:32but the town curator makes plans well in advance and asks the residents what they wanted.
04:38We asked the residents,
04:40what do you lack in the old city and what do you want in the new city?
04:47So one thing was a more defined shopping area,
04:51because we didn't have any shopping streets and so on.
04:54So here I'm standing on the new shopping street and a lot of stores here.
04:58And they also wanted to have more nature,
05:01because nature is very important for Kiruna.
05:07And city representatives have already been given a new city hall,
05:11paid for by the mining company.
05:13Sweden is becoming more important as a supplier of iron ore to the EU
05:18and in the future of rare earths,
05:21as Russia and China are unreliable supply partners.
05:24That's why the mayor finds it important that new workers move here to the north.
05:29Already we are an attractive city because of this new city center
05:34and our close position to the nature.
05:39We can reach everywhere in shorter time than 5 to 10 minutes from the new city center,
05:47if you want to go to ski and so on.
05:51Dozens of historic wooden houses from the old town
05:55are being brought over to the new Kiruna, towed in by truck.
05:59The old identity is to live on in the new town.
06:03The old town is already starting to sink,
06:05as the valuable iron ore is being dug out from underneath it.
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