The presence of iron in the area was known already in the mid-17th century, but at this early time communication lines to this northerly region were quite insufficient to permit any major exploitation. Only with the construction of the Iron Ore Line railway at the end of the 19th century, which connected the ports of Narvik on the North Sea and Luleå on the Baltic Sea, did commercial mining become a realistic proposition. The Swedish mining company LKAB (Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag) has been mining the mountain since the beginning of the 20th century.