7: FROM THE HARBOUR
A busy port
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Small and large boats have travelled the Orkdalsfjord since ancient times. They sailed carrying agricultural goods, fish and lumber – and from the 1600s, supplies for the mines at Løkken and Kvikne. The sailing ships on the fjord were eventually replaced by steamboats and motor ships, bringing pyrite, sulphur and prefab houses to Europe. Both the town and the harbour grew.
After the establishment of Orkla Grube AB in 1904, maritime traffic really picked up. New quays were built at Thamshavn, and the mining company subsidiary Salvesen & Thams had steamboats of its own for passengers and goods. The ships docked at the steamboat quay, which had a crane and railway tracks. In addition, there was a quay for loading pyrite and, for a short period, a separate quay for unsmelted sulphur.
Salvesen & Thams’ quay department had up to 150 employees.
The dramatic life of DS Nordfahrt
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Nordfahrt was among the ships hauling pyrite to Germany during World War II. On 26 February 1943, it was sunk while docked at Thamshavn, in a sabotage operation carried out by soldiers from the SOE group Kompani Linge.
The ship was built in Britain in 1910 and was originally named Marsden. In 1923, it was sold to German owners and sailed under several names before becoming Nordfahrt in 1939.
After the explosion at Thamshavn, Nordfahrt was repaired and put back into service. It hit a mine in the Bay of Kiel in 1945, but was salvaged and repaired the following year. The ship was rebuilt in 1949, and then finally dismantled in 1959.
The Thamshavn smelting plant
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The mining company spent years developing methods for extracting pure sulphur without losing the other minerals in the ore. Starting in 1913, they conducted a number of trials and research projects, collaborated internationally, and sought help from researchers at NTH in Trondheim (now NTNU) – and ultimately succeeded! The ‘Orkla process’ is considered the only successful venture into pyrite processing in Norway, and the method was also sold to pyrite producers elsewhere in the world.
With an effective processing patent in its toolbox, the mining company was able to establish a smelting plant at Thamshavn. This also allowed the mine to increase production, and in the 1930s Orkla Grube AB was Norway’s largest mining company.
At its peak, 400 people worked at the smelting plant, which was in operation from 1931 to 1962. Then sulphur prices dropped, and the operation was no longer profitable. The mining company sought help from the government, converting the plant to produce ferrosilicon. In 1974, the plant was sold to Elkem, and in 2011 Elkem was acquired by China National Bluestar.