Løkken Verk

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Løkken Verk is a village in Meldal, Norway that was populated when the Løkken Mine started mining for copper in 1654. The name comes from a farm at the place. The place is often called just Løkken.

The ore findings at Løkken Verk were originally about 30 million tonnes, and was the largest resource of copper-sulfid in Norway and there was mining at Løkken between 1654 and 1987. Until 1845 the target was copper that was smelted, but in 1851 the mine transferred into mining pyrites that were exported, primarily as raw material for sulfuric acid. In the period 1931-1962 there was produced sulfur and copper at Orkla Metal in Thamshavn. The history of the mining is preserved at Orkla Industrial Museum at Løkken Verk.

Since 1904 the mining was taken over by Christian Thams and Orkla Grube-Aktiebolag, that has evolved into the Forbes 500-company Orkla Group. At the same time the railway Thamshavnbanen was built between Løkken Verk and Thamshavn to transport the pyrites to the port.