From mucky mining to data technology – a centennial mining adventure from Ájluokta/Drag in Divtasvuodna/Tysfjord, Norway.

Why is your mobile telephone so small that it can fit easily into your pocket? Why have computers become so reduced in size from the original wall-sized giants, to ones that today can be placed on your lap? And what has this to do with an old dusty mining era? Part of the answer can be found with Norwegian Crystallites, the High Tech Company situated in the small settlement of Ájluokta/Drag, Nordland County. The story, however, began one hundred years ago.

When the Swede, Radmann, began mining at Drag in 1908, nobody had any idea of its significance one hundred years later for the small Ájluokta/Drag community, and for global data technology. Radmann and the landowner, Ellingsen, entered a rental agreement whereby a tax was levied at Kr.o.25 per ton for quartz and Kr.o.75 per ton for feldspar. The first mine was called ‘Mine Jenny’ and both local residents and indigenous Sami were employed as miners. This was the beginning of an industrial enterprise, that in 2008 – one hundred years later – linked Ájluokta/Drag to global high technology.

Translation to English: Robin Buzza