Lilleby smelteverk was a

smeltmill Smeltmills were water-powered mills used to smelt lead or other metals. The older method of smelting lead on wind-blown bole hills began to be superseded by artificially-blown smelters. The first such furnace was built by Burchard Kranich at Ma ...

located in Lilleby,

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

Sør-Trøndelag Sør-Trøndelag () was a county comprising the southern portion of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. It bordered the old Nord-Trøndelag county as well as the counties of Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, and Hedmark. To the west is the No ...

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, next to City Lade. It is well known for having produced the world's cleanest

ferrosilicon Ferrosilicon is an alloy of iron and silicon with a typical silicon content by weight of 15–90%. It contains a high proportion of iron silicides. Production and reactions Ferrosilicon is produced by reduction of silica or sand with coke in th ...

(an alloy that contains iron and silicon) for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

. Shut down in December 20th, 2002, the production moved to

Mo I Rana Mo i Rana () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city, and the administrative centre of the Municipalities of Norway, municipality of Rana, Norway, Rana, in Nordland county, Norway. It is located in the Helgeland region of Nordland, just sou ...

. The building is demolished.

Early years (1927–1949)

Professor Harald Christian Pederson founded the A/S Ila and Lilleby smelteverk melting facilities in the 1920s. He worked with a chemical process which later has been called the Pederson-2 process. It consists of melting ironmalm which gives ferrosilicon as a by-product.

Occupation years (1940–1945)

Lilleby closed on the same day Norway was attacked by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, but it did not remain closed for long. The Norwegian

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

industry was of great strategic importance for the German government, which requested that Lilleby resume operation right away. Birger Solberg was placed in charge, because professor Pedersen had left with his family to

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 ...

. Solberg was dismissed the day that Pederson returned, undoubtedly related to his views on the occupation, which differed from Professor Pedersen's views: Pedersen was a supporter of

and wanted to collaborate with the occupation. During the war, the plant was geared mostly towards aluminium, which was more important for the German war effort; however, many employees sabotaged the work in order to keep productivity low. Kake er godte

Post-World War II

After the war, Birger Solberg resumed control, but the economics and equipment of the facility had become unfavorable. Feeling empathy for the former workers, he devised a new business plan based on collecting German plane wrecks and other debris in middle-Norway and re-melting them. The facility was closed on December 20, 2002 and production moved to

Mo i Rana Mo i Rana () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city, and the administrative centre of the Municipalities of Norway, municipality of Rana, Norway, Rana, in Nordland county, Norway. It is located in the Helgeland region of Nordland, just sou ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lilleby Smelteverk Metallurgical facilities Buildings and structures in Trondheim