Coal mining eco­no­my

The mining com­pa­ny Store Nor­ske could, in 2009, for the second time con­clu­de with a pro­fit of about 400 mil­li­on Nor­we­gi­an crowns (ca 48.7 mil­li­on Euro), main­ly due to good coal pri­ces befo­re the break-out of the cri­sis and advan­ta­ge­ous finan­cial busi­ness (»kull-hedging«). The loo­kout seems less bright: Store Nor­ske has to deal with fal­ling world mar­ket pri­ces, can­cel­la­ti­on of orders, and dete­rio­ra­ting coal qua­li­ty in the lar­gest mine, »Svea Nord«, near Sveagru­va, whe­re 2 mil­li­on tons were mined last year. The mine is expec­ted to be clo­sed in 2014; Store Nor­ske has plans to open ano­t­her mine in the area.

The future of mine 7, the only mine near Lon­gye­ar­by­en still in ope­ra­ti­on, is uncer­tain as it has been pro­du­cing defi­ci­ts for a num­ber of years.

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten

By the way, my new book is in print and it can now be orde­red 🙂 it is a pho­to book with the tit­le “Nor­we­gens ark­ti­scher Nor­den (1): Spitz­ber­gen – vom Polar­licht bis zur Mit­ter­nachts­son­ne”, with Ger­man text Click here for fur­ther details!