Collecting in Norway - 2002

We decided to visit Norway because it is one of the most geologically varied and mineral rich regions of Europe. Composed of some of the world's oldest rocks and placed at the northernmost edge of the continent, the area has been repeatedly squeezed, pulled and crushed by collisions with other giant landmasses, amongst them Greenland. The resulting metamorphism, accompanied by regular injections of magma from below, has produced one of the most geologically interesting and diverse areas of the world. So we decided to go and see for ourselves.

Having arrived on an evening flight to Oslo the first thing to do was to find our hotel. After leaving a fairly warm London autumn, the most notable difference was just how cold the evening was. Alas a sign of worse to come. Following a quick snack, it was time to hit some nightspots. Great beer, but at an incredible £5 per pint it had to be.

The following morning saw us exploring the city's geological museum. Located in one of Oslo's many parks the building is a three storey structure completed in 1916, on the initiative of Professor W.C. Brögger, then Director of Mineralogical Institute. The bulk of the mineralogical collection is that of the former Mining Academy at Kongsberg, founded in 1757. A large part of the Academy's holdings was taken over by the University of Oslo, and transported to the capital in 1853; it included the private collections of J. Hiort (1734-1804; 4000 specimens), M. Brünnuch (1737-1827; 1,000 specimens), and the collection of J. Esmark (1763-1839).

The displays concentrate on the geology and minerals of Norway, but other regions are also well represented, particularly Northern Europe. Originally the exhibited collections were arranged especially for students, but since the University teaching now takes place elsewhere, an attempt has been made to adjust the displays to suit the general public. However the impression of an old-style teaching collection lingers with large glass-topped cases containing systematic displays.

About 50.000 specimens in total are in the collection, the museum being noted for its rare pegmatites. Almost 5,000 minerals are on display. Apart from the exhibited material, the Museum houses a considerable collection of Norwegian ores, collections made by Norwegian expeditions to foreign countries, not least from Arctic and Antarctic regions, and also large numbers of rocks from other parts of the world. Having thus spent a thoroughly interesting and enjoyable day it was back to the hotel, and then out to sample some more of that expensive beer. It was getting colder.

The following day was Tuesday and we were going to the famous Emerald deposits at Byrud. Catching the train from Oslo's central station the train took exactly one hour and twenty one minutes to reach the town of Hamar. Dead on time. Norwegian railways cross some of the most demanding country in the world, yet run like clockwork, no mean achievement. Hamar lies on the shores of Lake Mjosa, Norway's largest inland body of water. Taking a bus to the small town of Minnersund at the southernmost end we kept a lookout for the lake's fabled monster, a legend similar to that of the Loch Ness monster. Alas no luck this time. We arrived at the bus station and asked for directions to the Emerald mine. A very kindly local not only gave us directions but gave us a lift in his car, a fifteen minute drive up the other side of the lake to the little hamlet of Byrud.

The deposit was discovered around 1880. An English mining company "The Norwegian & General Exploration Company Ltd" quickly acquired mineral rights and moved in. It operated the deposit from 1899 till 1909, after which the mines were abandoned partly because of productivity, but mostly because much cheaper stones begun to arrive from the Far East. Nevertheless, the mine is notable for being one of the only European locations yielding gem quality stones.

This reputation continues to draw visitors today but most of the finds now consist of fragments lying on the spoil heaps around the shores of the lake. Although thousands of collectors over the years have successfully found Emeralds, the mines continue to yield good quality specimens. It was these we had come to find. As for the stones' origins, the Emeralds are found in an ancient vein of pegmatite, the whole region being on the edge of the Oslo Rift Valley. This rift is of Permian age (280-230my) and was the site of extensive igneous activity which injected the horizontally lying pegmatite into the Cambrian shale which forms the majority of the local rocks. The pegmatite is of relatively simple composition, and consists mainly of fine-grained, greyish to coarse feldspar and quartz. Silicates are also well represented by orthoclase and muscovite.

Beryl, or its green variety Emerald, however is the most beautiful. The pegmatite vein has been followed horizontally into the hill for a distance of almost 250metres and is now an empty shell. It is possible to have a good look around the old workings. However it is by raking through the spoil heaps on the shore that most specimens are found nowadays. Large emerald crystals of true gem quality are extremely rare. But small Emerald crystals up to 5 mm of length and with a thickness of 1-2 mm of good quality are not really hard to find.

Especially nice are the even smaller, free-standing Emerald crystals in the pegmatite. Significantly, the colouring agent in the Emeralds from Byrud is vanadium and not chromium as is the norm. The vanadium is derived from the shales through which the pegmatite was injected, and which contain a significant amount of this element. Interestingly, the deposit also contains large amounts of Topaz, which is ignored by most collectors who focus on finding Emeralds. Often one can find large masses of small, colourless, intergrown crystals. Occasionally large crystals up to 3-4 cm can be found. After another great day it was back to Oslo with bulging packs for more beer and Nordic hospitality. It was getting still colder. No wonder, Wednesday's morning found the city enveloped in a blanket of snow. A glance at the hotel thermometer showed a temperature of zero Celsius. It was time to get the thermals out.

Today's journey took us to the famous silver mines at Kongsberg. Travelling out by train through Oslo's suburbs the snow became thicker until now in this picturesque town the covering was 20cms or more. And it was freezing cold, a bone chilling minus five Celsius. Catching a taxi from the Station the silver mine lies 8km from the town in the mountains above the river valley.

The mine, one of the oldest in the world, was started in 1624 during the reign of King Frederick 5th of Denmark, who was also king of Norway at the time. A story goes that a local farmer's boy discovered a strange piece of shining metal and showed it to his father, who promptly recognised it for what it was and started secretly mining it. Local people became suspicious of his sudden wealth and the militia arrested him for theft. He was only released from prison in exchange for revealing the location of the deposit. When news of this reached Frederick, he came over from Denmark, declared the deposit to be a direct gift from God to himself and promptly commandeered to the lot!

Very quickly the mine became the treasury of Norway, used to finance many of the Reformation-led wars of the time. So much so, that a Mint was built at Kongsberg to transform the silver directly into coinage, which continues in that role to this day, making silver medals and commemorative coins. Indeed such was the eventual importance of the Kongsberg mine that some old books describe Norway itself as simply "the land around Kongsberg".

Whilst in the old days the miners descended into the mines vertically through shafts, today it is done in comfort from the side of the mountain through an adit created at the end of the last century to drain water from the lowest levels. The journey is made by an electric train which pulls a number of tiny coaches underground. Here visitors disembark for a tour of the old mine workings. Most of these were dug out by hand without the use of gunpowder by the method of burning wood against the tunnel walls and then extracting the cracked rock. It is only in much later years that drilling and explosives were used. Commercial operation ceased in the 1960's and today the mine is run by the local commune largely as a tourist attraction.

The original wooden mine fittings

Our final destination was to be the group of islands lying around 600km north of Norway known as Svalbard. Many will instantly recognise the name of the largest of the islands, Spitsbergen. However getting here is not easy. First an hour and a half flight from Oslo to Tromso and then a further hour and a half flight to Longyearbyen, the islands' largest town and community.

Longyearbyen, the largest community on Svalbard, has a population of about 1100 people, many of these children. Located in the Advent fjord at the entrance of the Advent valley, this community has all the amenities of a much larger city. We quickly found a post office, bank, public library, several cafes/restaurants, hospital, tourist information, supermarket and several general stores. It is also home to the world's northernmost newspaper, the Svalbardposten.

The reason for our journey to Svalbard was the fact that the islands are one of the few places in the world that provide excellent access to study almost the whole of the earth's history. The beauty of the place is that apart form glaciers there is almost no soil cover anywhere so the whole sequence can be examined. For this reason it forms an almost perfect geological observatory.

A view of Svalbard

Svalbard's geological record can be subdivided into three main units, the metamorphic basement complex, the unaltered sedimentary cover rocks, and the unconsolidated deposits. The basement complex represents the oldest rocks. These are igneous or metamorphic rocks that have suffered several periods of mountain building with folding and metamorphism. The last main mountain building episode was the Caledonian Orogeny which occurred during the Ordovician and Silurian, about 410-440 million years ago.

Most of the mountain ranges were subsequently eroded and ended up as huge masses of sand, gravel and mud, which were deposited on river plains and in the sea during the Devonian, about 380 million years ago. Later, new depositional episodes formed limestone successions during the Carboniferous and Permian eras, and sandstone-shale successions during the Mesozoic and Tertiary which continued until about 40 million years ago. All these can be easily seen.

The youngest deposits are those of the Quaternary age which date from 2 million years to the present. These are mostly unconsolidated deposits formed during, and after the last ice age: moraines, fluvial deposits, beach deposits and scree. Even volcanoes were active during parts of the Quaternary in northwestern Svalbard, so there are a number of recent basalts and magmatic flows.

Because of it rich history Svalbard is a region of rich mineral wealth. Amongst these feature phosphates, asbestos, hematite, galena, zincite and copper. The variety of silicates is mind boggling. However it is coal for which the islands are best known, and which forms absolutely massive deposits. Both Russians and Norway share extraction, the former mining around 500,000 tonnes per annum and the latter 400,000 tonnes. The geological conditions at certain locations on the islands encouraged Norwegian and overseas companies to prospect extensively for oil and gas. The drillings yielded valuable information on the geology of Svalbard, but no commercial finds.

And so after a two day stay it was time to head for home. First back to Tromso, then Oslo and finally very tired back to Heathrow. Would we recommend Norway as a wonderful place to observe and search for rocks and minerals, even if buying a beer requires an bank loan.