Sveagruva, often just called Svea, is a settlement on Spitsbergen, Svalbard, which is located by Sveabukta and Braganzavågen in the innermost part of Van Mijenfjorden. Until 1 October 2016, the settlement was the base for the main production of Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani. There are no permanent residents in the settlement, but at any given time it was approx. 225 people in Sveagruva, including employees in LNS and ISS.
Geography
Sveagruva is located by Braganzavågen within
Sveabukta, which in turn is part of the Van Mijenfjord. From the
settlement rises a little over 900 meters high, steep mountain wall
that makes up Liljevalchfjellet with two peaks, the highest 940
masl. Kjellströmdalen runs inwards to the northeast.
Society
Sveagruva has no road connection to the other settlements on
Svalbard, and the employees commute to and from Longyearbyen usually
by plane. Sveagruva has its own short-haul airport, Svea Airport,
which is owned, operated and used by Store Norske Spitsbergen
Kulkompani. There are frequent departures between Svalbard Airport,
Longyear, and the flights are provided by Air Transport with a
19-seater Fairchild Dornier 228.
Alternatively, in the winter
season you can get to Sveagruva by snowmobile, then usually via
Reindalen and Todalen, a journey that usually takes 1-2 hours.
Workers usually work in shifts lasting one or two weeks at a
time, with a corresponding free period of one or two weeks. During
the work period, the workers live in apartments managed by Store
Norske in Sveagruva; during the free period, most return to either
Longyearbyen or the mainland.
The leisure offer in Sveagruva
is varied, and the settlement has its own shooting club (with
associated shooting range), model aircraft club, bowling alley, and
a modern fitness room. Sveagruva has its own post office with
associated postcode 9175. In the same building as the post office is
also the 24-hour food fair.
There is a separate hospital in
the settlement with equipment for basic medical treatment. There are
normally no qualified health personnel in Sveagruva, but the
hospital is equipped for telemedicine with a camera and microphone,
and can confer with Longyearbyen hospital if needed.
Svea
receives power from a diesel-based power plant located at the
airport.
History
The area called Sveagrufvan with its
coal field was taken as a site by Bertil Högbom, on behalf of
Jernkontoret and Trafikaktiebolaget Grängesberg-Oxelösund, in 1910.
The following year, in 1911, the British mining company Northern
Exploration Company built two of its countless sharpening cabins in
the north and north, respectively. the south bank of Braganzavågen
(Camp Williams and Camp Margareth).
Mining was started by AB
Spetsbergens Svenska Kolfält in 1917, but then sold in 1921 to
Svenska Stenkolsaktiebolaget Sptesbergen. This company expanded the
operation further with several buildings, until the operation was
completely stopped in 1925. For three years the facility was only
maintained by security crews, until in 1928 it was reopened by the
New Swedish Coal Company Sptesbergen.
The facilities were
bought by SNSK in 1934, with the State as the first priority
mortgage lender. Extraction stopped in the period 1949–1970, stopped
again in a period from 1987. Today's operations were started in 2001
with the opening of the Svea Nord deposit, which is the largest coal
deposit operated to date on Svalbard.
In recent times (2013),
there is operation in one coal mine in the area, Svea Nord. A new
mine in Lunckefjellet opened at the end of 2013. The coal that was
extracted was driven down to Cape Amsterdam for storage and further
transport by boat. In winter, when the Van Mijenfjord is frozen,
large coal deposits usually built up near Cape Amsterdam while
waiting for the fjord to become ice-free.
On 1 October 2016,
a three-year shutdown in mining operations in Svea was introduced.
Kullgruven Svea Nord
The Svea Nord coal mine was opened in
2001, and was Store Norske Spitsbergen Grubekompani's main mine. The
mine is located about five kilometers from the settlement with
entrance from Høganesbreen. The mine was operated around the clock
all year round, and had a production of 1-3 million tonnes of coal a
year. Operations ceased in 2016.
The Lunckefjell project
As the most central coal storage in Svea Nord was expelled, Store
Norske planned to start coal mining in Lunckefjellet in what is
called the Lunckefjell project. The mine was ready for production in
September 2013. The main production started in February 2014 and
ceased in 2016.
More coal reserves
Store Norske has
projected coal production in the Svea area until almost 2030. There
are remaining coal reserves in the Svea Øst field, Ispallen and the
edge zone in Svea Nord, which can be extracted after the coal fields
in Lunckefjellet have been excavated.