Malmberget

Malmberget ("The Ore Mountain") is a locality and mining town situated in Gällivare Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden with 5,590 inhabitants in 2010. It is situated 5 kilometres from the municipal seat Gällivare.

Malmberget is known as a major site for the extraction of iron ore from deep mines by the company LKAB. The iron ore mining started in 1741 at the Illuvaara mountain, later known as Gellivare malmberg and eventually just Malmberget. The first train transporting iron ore was loaded in 1888 - this was the beginning of the great iron ore rush which would change the entire area of Northern Lapland. In Malmberget there were lots of job opportunities 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 wasted dynamite crates.