Kongsberg Silver Mine
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The Kongsberg Silver Mine ( Norwegian Kongsberg Sølvverk ) is a former mine and a silver mine in Kongsberg , Norway , which was opened and founded in 1623. It is also Norway's oldest mine and one of the most famous mines in the country. The mine is also considered to be the largest Norwegian company in the pre-industrial era - its tunnels or pits were over 1,000 km long and had 300 shafts - and had between 1,500 and 2,000 pits . The Kongsberg silver mine was in continuous operation from the beginning until its closure in 1958. Today the silver mine is protected as a cultural monument and registered with the Riksantikvaren under the number 87890 .
The ore extraction in the mine complexes of the Kongsberg silver ore deposit , underground and above ground, averaged a total of 2–12 tons of silver per year. Total ore extraction at the Kongsberg Silver Mine was officially about 1,350 tons of silver, but it is now believed that the actual yield was likely greater. The deposits of the silver ore deposits were mainly in the rock of the mountain as mineral rock .
history
The first silver mine was discovered at Numedalslågen in 1623 , which led to a lively settlement near the mine and to the founding of Kongsberg in 1624 by King Christian 7 of Denmark-Norway.
In the early days, mining in Kongsberg was heavily dominated by German miners whom Christian IV had recruited to develop the deposits. The miners previously worked in other silver mines or in mining and mostly came from Saxony , such as Freiberg , the Erzgebirge or the Harz Mountains . Some German miners who came to Kongsberg were previously employed in other Norwegian mines. A native of Saxony Bergmann Adolf Friedrich von Grabow from Saxony became the first in Kongsberg mines, appointed.
For these reasons, the silver mines in Kongsberg were given mostly German names. The German miners in Kongsberg wore their own miner's costume , worked according to the German mining regulations and time-honored German mining traditions, and were organized in a German miners' association. The work of the German miners in the local mines led to the creation of a German-speaking island in Norway in Kongsberg. In the early years, services were held in German and for many centuries in Danish and Norwegian.
At the beginning of mining in Kongsberg, rock was extracted by setting fire so that the mineral could then be extracted using mallets and iron . From 1659 gunpowder was experimented with in ore mining and from 1681 it was used regularly in Kongsberg. At the same time, significant investments were made in the mine, the pits were expanded considerably and new technologies were increasingly used. For example, artificial dams were built to get enough water to drive the water wheels of the conveyor systems.
In order to get to the deposits for ore mining, the pits, shafts and tunnels had to be driven deeper and deeper into the rock. At the same time, new pumps , pumping stations and drainages as well as ventilation shafts for the fireplaces and gases had to be created.
The development of mining was an important focus of the Danish-Norwegian state , as was the necessary expansion of the infrastructure and the road network. Norway's first passable road to Hokksund was built for the mining companies and the mine in Kongsberg .
Silver mining in the Kongsberg mines reached its peak in the 1770s, when more than 4,200 people were directly involved in ore mining. In particular, the 1750s, 1760s and 1770s are among the heyday with the highest yield. The silver mine also led to steady growth and upswing in the Kongsberg region. A mountain seminar and the first technical university in Norway were founded in Kongsberg in 1757. Furthermore, the royal mint was moved from Akershus to Kongsberg and in 1802 the city received market rights.
From 1805 the mine recorded declining yields for the first time in several years, despite significant investments, and some silver deposits also dried up. In 1810 a major fire ravaged Kongsberg, so that mining had to be stopped for the time being.
In 1816, after new silver discoveries in Kongsberg, the mine was reopened, but on a much smaller scale than before. The idea of a broad catchment area with many mines was abandoned and the decision was made to concentrate on a few, but safe, effective and higher-yielding silver mines. With the exact knowledge of the location of the deposits and the technical progress, silver mining turned out to be more profitable again. There were also significant new ore discoveries, especially in the 1830s and 1860s. In the 1830s, around 10 percent of the Norwegian national budget was generated through income from the silver mines. The particularly ore-rich Kongens gruve (King's Pit) was driven to a depth of over 1000 meters during this time.
Lower yields and falling silver prices after World War II gradually created annual deficits in Kongsberg. This was the decisive factor for a final decision by Parliament to close the mine on March 17, 1957. For several years now, the company has been earning more money with its large forests than with its actual main business in mining. However, the state-owned silver mining company still mined silver until the end.
Mining in the silver mine was then scaled back and stopped and some entrances were partially bricked up as a result. A small part of the mine was rebuilt as a museum and converted into the current Norsk Bergverksmuseum near Kongsberg as a tourist attraction . The former silver mine can be reached by the public from Saggrenda , which is 8 km from the center of Kongsberg. The route of the mine train , which can be used by visitors to the mining museum, leads 2.3 kilometers into the mountain.
Deposit
The Kongsberg silver ore deposit was the largest and most productive silver deposit in Norway. It is an igneous - hydrothermal dike deposit with metal-containing impregnations of the adjacent rock. The most important ore was metallic ("solid") silver .
literature
- Odd Arne Helleberg: Kongsberg sølvverk 1623–1958: congenes øyensten - rikenes pryd ; 2nd edition, Forlaget Langs Lågen 2010; ISBN 978-82-92053-41-6 .
- Kristian Moen : Kongsberg Sølvverks historie. 1623-1957. Sølvverksmuseets venner, 1967. p. 512.
- Ralph Tuchtenhagen : Small history of Norway. Verlag CH Beck Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-58453-4 .
- Fritz Petrick: Norway - From the beginning to the present - . Verlag Friedrich Pustet Regensburg 2002, ISBN 3-7917-1784-7 .
- Kongsberg Regions , 2011, published by Kongsberg Turistservice.
Web links
- Kongsberg Sølvverk on snl.no in the store norske leksikon
- Miljøstatus i Norge: Kongsberg Sølvverk on miljostatus.no
- Historical archive of the Kongsberg silver mine from 1623–1805 and 1816–1957 on arkivportalen.no
Individual evidence
- ↑ 87890 ( Memento of the original from August 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at the Riksantikvaren as a cultural monument.
- ↑ Odd Arne Helleberg : Kongsberg sølvverk 1623–1958: kongenes øyensten - rikenes pryd ( Norwegian ), Volume 2. revised edition. Forlaget Langs Lågen, 2010, ISBN 978-82-92053-41-6 , pp. 159-163.
- ↑ Viktige årstall i Kongsberg's history. In: mail1.kongsberg.kommune.no. Kongsberg Commune , October 17, 2011, archived from the original on May 26, 2012 ; Retrieved August 5, 2013 (Norwegian).
- ^ Kongsberg: The Silver Mines ( English ) Innovasjon Norge, Oslo. December 19, 2010. Retrieved August 5, 2013.
- ↑ Bergverkskart. (No longer available online.) In: arkivverket.no. Arkivverkets samling av bergverkskart, January 18, 2011, archived from the original on October 7, 2013 ; Retrieved August 5, 2013 (Norwegian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 59 ° 37 ′ 58 " N , 9 ° 35 ′ 58" E