Municipality Meldal Area 185 ha Local time Thursday 12:34 AM | Elevation 180 m (590 ft) Population 1,320 (2013) | |
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Weather 1°C, Wind W at 10 km/h, 90% Humidity | ||
Løkken Verk (sometimes just called Løkken) is a village in the municipality of Meldal in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south of Svorkmo (in Orkdal), 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) east of Bjørnli, and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north of the municipal center of Meldal.
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Map of 7332 L%C3%B8kken Verk, Norway
The 1.56-square-kilometre (390-acre) village of Løkken Verk has a population (2013) of 1,320. The population density is 846 inhabitants per square kilometre (2,190/sq mi).
History
Løkken Verk was originally populated when the Løkken Mine started mining for copper in 1654. The name comes from a farm at the place. The ore findings at Løkken Verk were originally about 30,000,000 tonnes (33,000,000 tons), and was the largest resource of copper sulfide in Norway. There was mining at Løkken from 1654 until 1987. Prior to 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. From 1931 until 1962, sulfur and copper were produced at Orkla Metal in Thamshavn. The history of the mining is preserved at Orkla Industrial Museum at Løkken Verk.
In 1904 the mining operation was taken over by Christian Thams and Orkla Grube-Aktiebolag, this group has evolved into the Forbes 500-company Orkla Group. At the same time, the Thamshavnbanen railway was built between Løkken Verk and Thamshavn (just north of Orkanger) to transport the pyrites to the port.