Origins
Archeological findings have shown that the region around Kiruna has been inhabited for at least 6,000 years. Centuries before Kiruna was founded in 1900, the presence of iron ore at Kiirunavaara and Luossavaara had been known by the local Sami population. In 1696, Samuel M�rt, a bookkeeper of the Kengis works, wrote on the presence of iron in the two hills. Anders Hacksell mapped the area in 1736 and named the mountains Fredriks berg (Kiirunavaara) and Berget Ulrika Eleonora(Luossavaara), after king Fredrik I and his wife Ulrika Eleonora. Despite the findings of large amounts of ore, no mining was initiated because of the remote location and the harsh climate. Some ore was extracted in the 19th century by extracting it in summer and transporting it in winter, using sleds drawn by reindeer and horses. However, the costs were high and the quality of the phosphorous ore poor, until, in 1878, the Gilchrist-Thomas process, invented by Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and Percy Gilchrist, allowed for the separation of phosphor from the ore.
In 1884, a concession for a railway from Lule� to Narvik was granted to The Northern of Europe Railway Company. The provisional railway between Lule� and Malmberget was finished in 1888 and the first train left Malmberget in March. Around the same time, the English company went bankrupt and had to sell the line to the Swedish state for 8 million Swedish crowns, around half the amount initially invested. After a significant rebuild, the railway to G�llivare could be used again and iron ore was extracted at Malmbergetby Aktiebolaget Gellivare Malmf�lt (AGM).
At the initiative of Robert Schoug, the Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag (LKAB) was founded in 1890. In 1893, Gustaf Bromsbecame CEO of both LKAB and AGM. LKAB pressed for continuing Malmbanan via Luossavaara and Kiirunavaara to the ice-free coast of Norway. The continuation of the railway line to Narvik was controversial, because opponents feared the
