Långban is a

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...

area in

Värmland Värmland () also known as Wermeland, is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in west-central Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Dalsland, Dalarna, Västmanland, and Närke, and is bounded by Norway in the west. Latin name versions are '' ...

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 countries, Nordic c ...

. It belongs to

Filipstad Municipality Filipstad Municipality (''Filipstads kommun'') is a municipality in Värmland County in west central Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Filipstad. The present municipality was created in 1971 when the City of Filipstad was merged with th ...

, with the nearest city being

Filipstad Filipstad is a locality and the seat of Filipstad Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden, with 10,644 inhabitants in 2019. Filipstad was granted city privileges in 1611 by Charles IX of Sweden, who named it after his son Duke Carl Philip (1601&n ...

, 21 km south. It was systematically mined through 1711-1972, but has traces from the 15th century. It is the birthplace of Swedish-American inventor

John Ericsson John Ericsson (born Johan Ericsson; July 31, 1803 – March 8, 1889) was a Swedish-American inventor. He was active in England and the United States. Ericsson collaborated on the design of the railroad steam locomotive ''Novelty'', which co ...

and his brother

Nils Ericson Nils is a Scandinavian given name, a chiefly Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Latvian variant of Niels, cognate to Nicholas. People and animals with the given name * Nils Bergström (born 1985), Swedish ice hockey player * Nils Björk (1898–1989) ...

. It has been described as one of the most mineral-rich places in the world. Over 270 different minerals have been identified in the area and more than 60 of these have Långban as type locality. Most mining was done for

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 ...

and manganese ore, but in total, 300 minerals have been found. After 1950, only

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

was extracted. Långbanshyttan is the name of an adjacent

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheri ...

and adjacent house of the factory manager, where the brothers

Nils Nils is a Scandinavian given name, a chiefly Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Latvian variant of Niels, cognate to Nicholas. People and animals with the given name * Nils Bergström (born 1985), Swedish ice hockey player *Nils Björk (1898–1989) ...

and

were born. The furnace was built in the 16th century, and used until 1933. It was renovated 1980-83 and is today a tourist attraction. File:Långban.jpg, Conditioning facility und new shaft in the ore mine File:Laangban Karte.JPG, Map of the pit File:Cucumber-Långbanshyttan.jpg, Smelting furnace File:Memorial John Ericsson.jpg, Birth house of

with memorial stone

External links

Långban
an

from

Nordisk familjebok ''Nordisk familjebok'' (, "Nordic Family Book") is a Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. Despite their co ...

Langban
at Mindat.org, List of minerals at Langban.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Langban Populated places in Värmland County Geological type localities