A massive church weighing 672.4 tonnes and 40 meters wide was moved as a single unit over a specially constructed 5-kilometer route from August 19 to 20, 2024. The church was placed on a custom-built carriage with 224 wheels, moving at a slow pace of half a kilometer per hour. Combined with the transport platform, the total weight reached 1,200 tonnes. This relocation is part of a broader effort to move 3,050 homes and 200,000 square meters of public buildings approximately 3 kilometers east due to ground subsidence caused by underground mining. By August 2025, 25 buildings had already been moved using a technique where structures are lifted onto beams and rolled to their new location, while 16 buildings, including the church, remained to be relocated. The tomb of Hjalmar Lundbohm, the founder of Kiruna, and the building he constructed must also be moved to the new location. The church's relocation was broadcast live on Swedish television, drawing thousands of spectators along the route. The ground subsidence in Kiruna is caused by LKAB, a company that has been extracting iron ore from Kiirunavaara since 1898. LKAB uses a sub-level blasting method that gradually causes the ground to sink, leading to cracks in the foundations of schools, a hospital, and homes in the historical city center. In 2004, LKAB informed the Kiruna municipality that the existing city center would need to be relocated. A new city center has been built 3 kilometers to the east, with the new city hall, nicknamed Kristallen, inaugurated in 2018. The commercial center of the new district opened in September 2022, but the construction is still far from complete. In August 2025, LKAB announced that the ground was subsiding faster and over a larger area than previously expected, requiring the relocation of 650 additional homes and 20 more businesses, affecting nearly 7,000 people. LKAB and the municipality have asked the Swedish government for more financial support to cover the expanded relocation area. The company had already allocated about 12 billion Swedish kronor for the relocation project, and some estimates suggest the entire project might not be completed until as late as the year 2100. The iron ore deposits beneath Kiruna are among the richest in Europe. In 2022, the two LKAB mines in the region generated 21 billion Swedish kronor in profit, with more than a third of that amount paid as dividends to the Swedish state, which is LKAB's sole shareholder. LKAB is also exploring the Per Geijer deposit in Kiruna, one of the most significant rare earth deposits in Europe, which could allow mining operations to continue well beyond this century.