Sydvaranger
Encyclopedia
Sydvaranger was the company that operated the Bjørnevatn Mine in Kirkenes
Kirkenes
is a town in the municipality of Sør-Varanger in the county of Finnmark in the far northeast of Norway...

, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 between the start in 1906 until 1996. Since then the company has mainly been concerned with cleaning up the industrial areas and business development. The company also owned Bidjovagge Mine og Rana Mine at Storforshei
Storforshei
Storforshei is a village in Rana municipality, Norway, located northeast of Mo i Rana. Its population is 690 . It is the location of the Rana Mine and the Arctic Circle Raceway....

 in Nordland
Nordland
is a county in Norway in the North Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Nord-Trøndelag in the south, Norrbottens län in Sweden to the east, Västerbottens län to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The county was formerly known as Nordlandene amt. The county administration is...

.

History

The iron ore mines at Bjørnevatn
Bjørnevatn
Bjørnevatn is a village in the municipality of Sør-Varanger, Norway. Its population is 2,392....

 started in 1906 and in 1910 the 12 kilometer long railway Kirkenes-Bjørnevatnbanen, the worlds northernmost railway, was built to allow the transport of the ore to the port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

 at Kirkenes where it was crushed to pellets
Pelletizing
Pelletizing is the process of compressing or molding a material into the shape of a pellet. A wide range of different materials are pelletized including chemicals, iron ore, animal compound feed, and more.- Pelletizing of iron ore :...

 before being shipped to Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. The mining blossomed through the 1950s, 60s and 70s, but in the 80s ore became too expensive. In 1985 the government decided to close down the mine, and the last ore was mined in 1996.

At the time of the closure of the mine, the Government of Norway owned 87% of the company. In December 1999 it sold its ownership to Varanger Kraft
Varanger Kraft
Varanger Kraft is a municipal owned power company that operates four hydroelectric power stations producing 420 GWh per year through the subsidiary Pasvik Kraft, operates the power grid in the seven owner municipalities in Eastern Finnmark with 3,200 km lines and 16,000 customers, as well as...

 (who owed 63%) and the Municipality of Sør-Varanger
Sør-Varanger
Sør-Varanger is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kirkenes. Sør-Varanger was separated from the municipality of Vadsø on 1 July 1858.-Name:...

 (37%). In 1999 Arctic Bulk Minerals bought the production equipment and wanted to attempt new mining activities in the mine, but the attempt failed and the assets were transferred back to Sydvaranger to pay for the debt
Debt
A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...

. In 2006 the company was sold to Tschudi Group
Tschudi Group
Tschudi Group is a private shipping and investment company based in Oslo, Norway. Among the shipping companies owned are Eesti Merelevandus, TECO Lines, International Transport Contractors Management, First Baltic Shipmanagement and Rederiet Otto Danielsen as well as the inhouse groups Tschudi...

. This group is seriously planning to start mining again in 2009. They have external investors who have invested 2400 MNOK for the costs of this.

After ten years and NOK
Norwegian krone
The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...

 50 million used for cleaning up, Sydvaranger has quays and industrial areas that can be used for new business. The company is cooperating with the company Kirkenes World Port Group to attempt to create a railport at Kirkenes that will be connected to the Russian Railways
Russian Railways
The Russian Railways , is the government owned national rail carrier of the Russian Federation, headquartered in Moscow. The Russian Railways operate over of common carrier routes as well as a few hundred kilometers of industrial routes, making it the second largest network in the world exceeded...

 with a proposed extension of the Murmansk-Nikel Railway
Murmansk-Nikel Railway
The Murmansk–Nikel Railway is a 206 km long railway between Murmansk and Nikel in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, primarily for freight from the nickel mine at Nikel, but also open to passengers. The railway was completed in 1968 and is not electrified. A part was built 1936...

.

Today Sydvaranger AS is owned by Tschudi Shipping Company.

In 2007 there also was formed a new company Sydvaranger Gruve AS Sydvaranger Gruve AS which will be producing iron ore from the mine in Bjørnevatn mid-2009.
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