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Gellivara

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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[GELLIVARE], a mining town of Sweden in the district (ltin) of Norrbotten, 815 m. N. by E. of Stockholm by rail. It lies in the well-nigh uninhabited region of Swedish Lapland, 43 m. N. of the Arctic Circle. It owes its importance to the iron mines in the mountain Malmberget 4 z m. to the north, rising to 2024 ft. above sea-level (830 ft. above Gellivara town). During the dark winter months work proceeds by the aid of electric light. In 1864 the mines were acquired by an English company, but abandoned in 1867. In 1884 another English company took them up and completed a provisional railway from Malmberget to Lulea at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia (127 m. S.S.E.), besides executing a considerable portion of the preliminary works for the continuation of the line on the Norwegian side from Ofoten Fjord upwards (see Narvik). But this company, after extracting some 150,000 tons of ore in 1888-1889, went into liquidation in the latter year. Two years later the mines passed into the hands of a Swedish company, and the railway was acquired by the Swedish Government. The output of ore was insignificant until 1892, when it stood at 178,000 tons; but in 1902 it amounted to 1,074,000 tons. Three miles S.W. rises the hill Gellivara Dundret (2700 ft.), from which the sun is visible at midnight from June 5 to July 11. The population of the parish (about 6500 sq. m.) in 1900 was 11,745; the greater part of the population being congregated at the town of Gellivara and at Malmberget.