Mining advertising is popping up throughout the world, presenting a different side of the story to the negative one being built, not always fairly, by climate change. None of it is as striking as this work by NoA Åkestam Holst for Mined in Sweden. It’s a piece of jewellery forged from menstrual iron.

The provocative Ring of LiFe was created from an unexpected combination of materials – iron extracted from a menstruation, fused with fossil free Swedish iron. The result is a ring that makes the connection between body and earth immediate, intimate and impossible to ignore.

Mined in Sweden is a collaboration between Boliden, LKAB, Heidelberg Materials, Epiroc, Sandvik and Svemin, created to increase awareness of how deeply modern life depends on minerals and metals. With Ring of LiFe reframes mining through the fusion of design, biology and personal symbolism. Every month, people who menstruate lose iron – the same element that shapes buildings, vehicles, phones and the infrastructure of daily life. Ring of LiFe brings that parallel into tangible form.

“People often have strong opinions about mining, but the understanding of what metals actually do for us is remarkably limited. Especially among women. Ring of LiFe is intended to deepen that conversation. When people see that the iron in their own bodies is the very same element we extract from the earth, the relationship between humans and mining becomes easier to grasp,” stated Emma Härdmark, communications director at Svemin.



The iron from the menstruation sample was extracted by Professor Jonas Bergquist at Uppsala University, then merged with fossil free Swedish iron sponge produced by LKAB and refined into steel by Swerim. A Swedish jewellery designer shaped the material into a form inspired by geological textures, mineral layering and bodily cycles.

Individuals can register interest in creating their own ring at ringoflife.se.