Norberg and its surroundings is like a Swiss cheese with holes, shafts, drifts and pits. Together with smithies, furnaces, foundries and several other remains of its long tradition of mining and iron ore processing. Despite a mining history starting as early as in the 1200th century, the mining crisis in the 1960’s hit the area hard. Several attempts were made to deal with a shifting market and major investments were made to modernize and centralize the mines and processing facilities. The attempt to build a highly modern concentration plant at Bålsjöverket and a new central shaft “Centralschaktet” ended in a complete financial failure, and the first closure occurred during the deep recession in 1967, even before all work was completed. The brand new central shaft was never taken into operation.

In 1974, another attempt was made to create the most modern steel processing facility of Europe and a brand new blast furnace was built at Spännarhyttan and all remaining mining operations was concentrated to the modern Mimer mine. However, the recession during the 1970’s made it obvious that Norberg was doomed, and finally the iron ore history ended in 1981, after some 800 years of operations.
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