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310 vi. mining and metallurgical industry.
ore which is now worked is obtained from the old heaps of gangue, and from
other mines in the country. The ore is smelted in shaft furnaces for lead,
from which the silver is then separated by zinc, and is then precipitated by
electrolysis.
With regard to the production of silver, Sweden possesses data ranging over
a longer succession of time than any other country: right away from 1400 down
to the present day, with the exception of two short periods. The output during
the different periods was as follows.
Year kg
1400—93 . . 61591
1506—43 . . 52 881
1544—51 . . 22 718
1560-00 . . 19 432
1601—00 . . 60 728
Adding the years for which statements are lacking, the entire output of silver
for the last five centuries is computed at about 400 000 kilograms, by far the
greater part falling to the Sala Mine.
Gold. Gold is obtained in Sweden only from the Falun Copper Mine, and
now in very small quantities. Gold was not discovered in the ore till 1881,
although it had been ascertained in the sixties that the copper obtained from
the ore was auriferous. Gold occurs in well-formed quartz veins together with
bismuth, and in varying quantities: from a couple of grams to several hundred
grams per ton of ore.
As long as the Henderson extraction process was used for the working of the ore,
the gold was released by treatment with chlorine by the Plattner-Munktell process.
Now that the smelting process has been reverted to, the gold is obtained
together with the silver in the refined copper. The total amount of gold
obtained from the Falun Mine aggregates about 2 tons, representing a value of
approximately 5 million kronor.
Besides the Falun Mine, there has existed only one real gold mine in Sweden,
namely Ädelfors. This mine, which was discovered in 1738, was worked till
1822, but on a very small scale, and with very poor results.
Nickel. Nickel was formerly produced at two works in Sweden, notably
Kleva and Sågmyra. When, in the eighties of the last century, the biggest
known nickel deposit in the world was discovered — at Sudbury in Canada —
and the price of nickel sank to nearly half, these two works had to be shut
down, and since that time no nickel has been manufactured in Sweden. Besides
the nickel ores at Kleva and Sågmyra, there are several other ore deposits, e. g.
at Frustuna, Haddbo, Ruda. The ore in all the mines consists of magnetic
pyrites; however, the supplies are in most cases comparatively insignificant, and
the percentage of nickel is so low, that prospects for a remunerative production
of nickel are almost nil with the metal at its present price.
Zinc. Sweden possesses pretty considerable supplies of zinc: they consist
exclusively of zinc blende. In 1913 were obtained 50 752 tons of ore, making
about 3 % of the world’s production, and representing a value of about
2 100 000 kronor. The bulk of the ore mined is obtained from the
Åmmeberg mines, belonging to the Belgian company Vieille Montagne, and the rest
from Ryllshyttefältet, Kaveltorpsfältet, Saxbergsfältet, Stollbergsgruvan, and the
Dannemora mines.
Notwithstanding the rich supplies of zinc ore, there has been no manufacture
of zinc in Sweden in recent years. The chief reason is that the usual, and
1 Data are lacking for the periods from 1494 to 1505 and 1552 to 1559. It is also to
be observed that the periods do not include equal number of years.
1701—00 ... 36 508
1801—20 ... 7 894
1821-30. . . 5 621
1831-40. . . 8 095
1841—45 ... 4 749
1846-50 ... 6 271
1851-55. . . 6 329
1856—60 ... 5 548
1861-00 ... 79 014
1901-10. . . 4 074
191 1.....1289
191 2..... 962
191 3.....1037
Total1 384 786
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