Mining closure in Sweden, Finland and Norway

The aim of this chapter is to trace the long tradition of Nordic mining, and to analyse local and regional impacts and policy during the recessive period of mining in the last two decades in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. Mining has played an important role in the economies of these countries until recent decades. Up to the mid-1970s, the Swedish iron-producing company, LKAB, was the price-setter on the world iron ore market. The decline of mining since the latter half of the 1970s has been remarkable and it ended a long-lived mining era in many localities. Crises and social problems associated with a transition gradually became public, and during the 1970s, the problems associated with wind-down or closures of mine communities drew the attention of the political administration. In the 1980s, when they were faced with retrenchments and closures, these communities became the centres of attention in the Nordic countries.