Dannemora is an old mining town and a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

situated in

Östhammar Municipality Östhammar Municipality (''Östhammars kommun'') is a municipality in Uppsala County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Östhammar. The present municipality was created during the local government reform in the late sixti ...

Uppsala County Uppsala County ( sv, Uppsala län) is a county or ''län'' on the eastern coast of Sweden, whose capital is the city of Uppsala. It borders the counties of Dalarna, Stockholm, Södermanland, Västmanland, Gävleborg, and the Baltic Sea. Provi ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. It had 213 inhabitants in 2010.

Dannemora mine

Dannemora is the location of an important

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

mine, the

Dannemora mine The Dannemora mine (''Dannemora gruvor'') at Dannemora in Uppsala County, Sweden was once one of the most important iron ore mines in Sweden. The mine was closed by its owners SSAB in 1992. It may have been open since the 13th century, but the ...

, which formed the basis of the

iron industry Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ...

Uppland Uppland () is a historical province or ' on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. On the small uninhab ...

. It provided the raw material for about 20

finery forge A finery forge is a forge used to produce wrought iron from pig iron by decarburization in a process called "fining" which involved liquifying cast iron in a fining hearth and removing carbon from the molten cast iron through oxidation. Finery ...

s that produced

bar iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" t ...

for export. In the early mid-19th century, numerous workers from this town emigrated to the United States, with some settling in upstate New York at the site of other iron mines. They named the community Dannemora, after their former home. In England, iron produced from Dannemora ore was known as ''

oregrounds iron Oregrounds iron was a grade of iron that was regarded as the best grade available in 18th century England. The term was derived from the small Swedish city of Öregrund, the port from which the bar iron was shipped. It was produced using the Wal ...

'', after the port town of

Öregrund Öregrund is a locality situated in Östhammar Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden. As of 2010, it had 1,555 inhabitants. It is located by the Baltic Sea, on the coast of Uppland. Despite its small population, Öregrund is still commonly referred ...

, from which it was shipped. Bar iron from these forges was considered the best raw material for producing

blister steel The cementation process is an obsolete technology for making steel by carburization of iron. Unlike modern steelmaking, it increased the amount of carbon in the iron. It was apparently developed before the 17th century. Derwentcote Steel Fur ...

by the

cementation process The cementation process is an obsolete technology for making steel by carburization of iron. Unlike modern steelmaking, it increased the amount of carbon in the iron. It was apparently developed before the 17th century. Derwentcote Steel F ...

, owing mainly to the extremely low levels of sulphur and phosphorus in the ores, and their relatively high manganese content. In 1878 the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

(891 mm) Dannemora–Hargs railway was opened to the port in

Hargshamn Hargshamn is a locality situated in Östhammar Municipality, Uppsala County Uppsala County ( sv, Uppsala län) is a county or ''län'' on the eastern coast of Sweden, whose capital is the city of Uppsala. It borders the counties of Dalarna, S ...

. The iron ore was exported directly from this port. The mine was closed down in 1992. With world market demand rising again, the feasibility of reopening the mine was investigated. The mine was re-opened in June 2012 in a ceremony performed by King

Carl XVI Gustaf Carl XVI Gustaf (Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus; born 30 April 1946) is King of Sweden. He ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf, on 15 September 1973. He is the youngest child and only son of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Du ...

References

External links

Data on the mine

Picture of the workings
Populated places in Uppsala County Populated places in Östhammar Municipality 891 mm gauge railways in Sweden {{Uppsala-geo-stub

Dannemora mine

See also

References

External links