Pictures from Kongens Gruve - Kongsberg - Norway

[francis]

Me, my girlfriend (now fiancee) and her little brother went on the guided tour to Kongens Gruve last summer. I brought a camera with me, but until now I haven't had access to a scanner to scan the negatives. I have now got myself a scanner, and thought I could share a few pictures.

Kongens gruve is the deepest silver mine in Kongsberg. It's over 1000m deep, but only a few 100m are accessable, the rest is waterlogged. If anyone fancies a 700m deep dive, I'm sure it could be arranged .

Camera: Pentax P30
Lense: Vivitar 28mm f/2.8
Flash: Metz CT45
Film: Kodak T-Max 400 @ 400 developed in T-Max developer
Scanner: Nikon Coolscan V LS-50

The pictures were somewhat overexposed, but I have tried to get them as good as possible in Lightroom.

BTW: In no way have I got anything to do with the rubbing SRT rope on pic 10, there is a guided tour down the mine that www.berganfahrerne.no run.


Francis

 

[SamT]

good work - nice photos.

I espically like the views of the 'false floor' planking. it gives an impression of what the speedwell streamway probably once looked like before the wood disappeared.

 

[ianball11]

looks spooky in b&w!

Ian B.

 

[IanWalker]

Great pictures

Did they smelt the ore underground (pic 5)? Is that common?

The place looks to be in great condition - do you know when the mine was abandoned?

Ian.

 

[jduckeck]

Seems to me like an underground smithy, not a smelter. They repaired iron tools, shod the horses and so on...

More info on http://www.showcaves.com/english/no/mines/Konnerud.html
and on their own website of course...

Jochen

 

[francis]

Great pictures

Did they smelt the ore underground (pic 5)? Is that common?

The place looks to be in great condition - do you know when the mine was abandoned?

Ian.

The mine was abandoned in 1958. They processed the ore i some buildings outside the mine.

Seems to me like an underground smithy, not a smelter. They repaired iron tools, shod the horses and so on...

More info on http://www.showcaves.com/english/no/mines/Konnerud.html
and on their own website of course...

Jochen

The link above leads to a page about Konnerudgruvene in Drammen (40 min drive from Kongsberg). They are not the same mines as the ones in Kongsberg.

You can download a film about the mines in Kongsberg here.

http://www.bvm.museum.no/Multi%20Site%20Solution/Websites/bvm/Home/Bes?ksinfo/S?lvgruvene.aspx

If anyone happens to be in the eastern part of Norway give me a shout, and I'm sure we can arrange to go underground somewhere .

Francsi

 

[jduckeck]

You are right, the correct link is
http://www.showcaves.com/english/no/mines/Kongsberg.html

I was pretty astonished about the ? in your url. Did not work well with the board software ;-)
But it works with the browser...

Jochen