Folldal Mine

Folldal Mine:

The Folldal Mine Trust

The Mine Trust was established in 1998 by Folldal Community. The Trust’s duty was, and is, to strive to preserve the plant, buildings and equipment used to run the mine.

There are about 70 buildings that stand in connection with the former mining work and its environment.

There are barrack blocks where the manual workers lived in cramped conditions, and the luxurious Director’s house.

The whole layout area shows the class differences that existed whilst the mine still ran and in addition the industrial buildings are well preserved.

An aerial photograph that shows a part of the industrial buildings, the barracks where the workers had their apartments and the road up to Folldal mine and The Mine Cafe (stippled in black).

Adit 1, together with the envirnment of the buildings, is the main attraction of the mine trust. This was a mine entrance used from the 17^th century.
Her vil du ved hjelp av tog bli fraktet 600 meter inn i gruva. Der det er sprengt ut en stor hall som heter Wormshall.

Here you can take the train 600 metres into the mine, where a large room was blasted out for machinary and then converted by the trust into the Wormhall.

Before and after trips in the mine there is the mine cafe (Gruvekroa) where you can relax with coffee and cake in a cosy environment with a fantastic view of Rondane National Park.

History

It all started in 1745, when a man called Ole Husum found ore in Folldal. In 1748 actual mining started up in Folldal. The mine was worked, off and on, until 1941, when the ore, which was for copper, zinc and sulphur. was at last exhausted. Other mines were now begun

    - North and South Geitryggen
    - The New Mine
    - Grimsdal Mine
And Hjerkinn, that was closed in April 1993, having started production in 1968.

The area around Folldal Old Mine (Folldal Verk) shows a complete mining and processing environment, which is very special. The Works had its own community in the countryside, with a shop, bakery, laundry, butcher, school, community hall and many other things, that are today as they were then.

From a Country to an Industrial Community.

From the 1700’s mining became the most important activity

Mines:

Old-times

The main mine in Folldal was started in 1748. The ore was mined using hand tools like hammers and chisels, and only copper was sought. This went on until 1878, when production halted because of poor prices.

Through these years, the mine was sunk down to 150 metres.

Modern Times

In 1906, a new start was made, with English owners and Worm H. Lund as the director. A water-power station was built for the mine, and this could drive compressors that made pneumatic drilling possible. This, together with dynamite, revolutionised mining. During the years up tp the mines closure in 1941, 14 levels were excavated down to 700 metres deep, with a total of 1.5 million tons of ore hoisted. The new method of dressing the ore (flotation) meant that zinc and sulphur could also be economically extracted.

Other Mines:

South Geitryggen Mine
1760’s to 1963, worked during several periods
Ore production totalled about 330,000 tons.

Grev Moltke Mine or New Mine
1783-1952 worked during several periods
Ore production totalled about 220,000 tons

Grimsdal Mine
1780-1950’s worked during several periods
Ore production: It is uncertain how much ore was hoisted in total, but from 1907-1919, about 230 tons a year was taken out.
There was a combination of full production and trial workings.

North Geitryggen
1935-1970
Ore production: about 1.95 million tons.

Tverrfjellet:
1968-1993
Ore production 15 million tons, over 690,000 tons annually.