The purpose of this study is to investigate how Gällivare municipality have planned for the participation of Malmberget’s citizens during the town’s relocation process. The study will be based on Gällivare municipality’s two most recent detailed comprehensive plans that involve Malmberget. The selected planning documents will be analysed via a qualitative text analysis in which all occurrences of citizen participation found will be presented in this essay. The citizen participation that has occurred during the period that the two detailed comprehensive plans cover will then be analysed using Sherry Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen participation. The purpose of this analysis is to discuss the citizen participation used during the planning processes. The citizen participation was analysed using Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation. The analysed citizen participation can be described as tokenism due to uncertain and inconsistent information presented by Gällivare municipality to the citizens.

Focusing on the town of Malmberget in northern Sweden, this study addresses the relationship between place, identity formation and social transformation among mining communities. Due to an expanding mining area, the town is being gradually demolished and remaining inhabitants will eventually have to be relocated. Concurrently, urban expansion plans are underway in the neighboring town of Gällivare. The aim of the study is to examine whether and how collective forms of identity are constructed in relation to Malmberget as place. What are the main values underlying such collective identity and are they being taken into considerations in the expansion plans? The study also examines if and how any attempts to preservation have been made in response to the demolition and redevelopment. The study is primarily based on interviews with inhabitants of Malmberget. It also draws on qualitative content analysis of documents on the expansions plans. As the study focuses on notions of place and collective identity, in its theoretical framework Lefebvre’s spatial triad is combined with a phenomenological approach of place and Jenkins’ conceptualisation of collective identity.   The findings suggest that there exists a collective ‘Malmberget identity’ consisting of certain values connected to place relations and community history. Some aspects of these values have implicitly been taken into considerations in the expansion plans in Gällivare, but far from all of them. The study also shows how interviewees have enacted preservation strategies as a way to cope with the urban transformation and to protect their shared collective identity.

The iron apatite mineralizations of northern Sweden are mainly situated in supracrustal rocks and are thought to have formed during approximately the same time as the major plutonic suites in northern Sweden. In this thesis the Malmberget iron apatite ore deposit have been compared to the Kiruna iron apatite ore deposit to see whether the role of hydrothermal processes are different between the two ore districts. Also, since it has proven problematic to distinguish between the different mafic and ultramafic members of the major plutonic suites in northern Sweden (i.e. the Haparanda suite (1.94-1.85 Ga), the Perthite-monzonite suite (PMS) (1.87 Ga) and the Edefors suite (1.80-1.79 Ga)), a second goal is to trace the distribution and distinguish between these suites. Major elements, REE and trace elements have been studied along with polished sections from the ores and oxygen isotopes of magnetites from the ore districts to trace the ore formation process and separate between suites. All ore districts display a close similarity in geochemistry between host rocks and magnetites, especially regarding the REE pattern. Oxygen isotopes show that samples from the Kiruna district plot exclusively at positive δ18O-values with the majority of them at values < 1‰. Samples from the Malmberget district display δ18O-values either close to the igenous range or at slightly negative values. However, samples that display very low or negative δ18O-values show signs of either high temperature hydrothermal alteration, oxidation or crustal contamination. The δ18O composition along with textural observations from the polished sections and geochemistry, points towards a magmatic origin for these deposits. No apparent evidence has been found to support a primary ore formation by hydrothermal process in any of the districts studied. Regarding the suites, normalized spider plot patterns of REEs and trace elements served as a basis for subdivision into groups by similarities in key identification parameters. Several patterns are characterized by a pronounced Eu-trough while the middle- to HREEs display a rather flat trend, criteria that are related to rocks from the Haparanda suite, while samples with positive Eu-anomaly (Eu/Eu* > 1) and a nearly flat trend from La to Pr with a marked positive peak at Sr and generally less enriched in LILE, are consistent with the Edefors suite. Also, the Edefors suite generally display low concentrations of both Th and U but are somewhat enriched in Sr with relation to Pr. No distinct geochemical features could help to separate between the Haparanda and the PMS suites.