Sulitjelma Mines(Norwegian:Sulitjelma gruber) was a Norwegian mining company that extracted copper,pyrite, and zinc atSulitjelma in the municipality of Fauske,Norway. Operations started with a test mine in 1887. From 1891 to 1933, the business was registered as a Swedish company calledSulitelma Aktiebolags Gruber. From 1933 to 1983, it was registered as a Norwegian company calledA/S Sulitjelma Gruber, and from 1983 until it was shut down in 1991 the company was state-owned and was namedSulitjelma Bergverk AS.[1][2]
Chalcopyrite was found by the SamiMons Andreas Petersen around 1858,[1]but due to the very remote location of the place there was skepticism that the deposits could be commercially viable. It was only when the Swedish industrialist and consul Nils Persson gained interest in the ore deposits in 1886 that progress was made in developing mining in Sulitelma. The company Sulitelma Aktiebolags Gruber was founded in 1891.[1]That same year, the narrow-gaugeSulitjelma Line was built. Until 1956, copper and semi-finished products were transported by train and steamship to the port at Finneid. Transport was an expensive part of the operations throughout the history of the mining company.[3]
Several technical innovations and inventions were made at Sulitjelma, including the Knudsen process[4][5]and some of the world's first electric copper smelters. Later in the history of the works many other improvements were made, especially in concentrating ore and smelting. In the early 1900s, Sulitjelma Mines was the second-largest industrial company in Norway.
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