Bergtatt Marble Mine, Norway

 Bergtatt marble mine is located on the Romsdal peninsula in Western Norway , north of Molde and south of Kristiansund.

It is a family run marble mine and parts of the mine are open to tourists for tours. Many of the tours start in Molde or Kristiansund, and include the Atlantic Road as well as the mine. 

From a distance the forested hill doesn't really look like a marble mountain. Mining began in 1938 and is still ongoing in some areas. 

Leaving the main road, the coach drives up the hill on a private road leading to the mine and then suddenly enters a tunnel. It's probably the first time I have entered a cave in a coach! After a short drive the coach stops at the entrance to the tourist section.

We were greeted in a hall lit by 2 large chandeliers. We all put on a life jacket and helmet and got into 3  electric rafts, for a ride across an underground lake. 

Lights of different colours faintly lit the hall and tunnel and as we crossed the lake, atmospheric music was playing. We came to a small chamber and got out of the raft to watch a short video on the geology, then everyone was given a small cup of pure water that has filtered through the mountain - it was completely tasteless. 

Then back into the rafts to return to the starting point.

Here we went into a large chamber set up for concerts, with space for 300 people. There is a bar, and a display of old mining lights etc. The temperature here was quite pleasant after the cool air in the lake area. The hall is heated to 22⁰ C, whereas the mine is only about 7⁰ C.

We watched a film on the mining techniques. I was really surprised to learn that the marble is only used to make high quality glossy paper. This is very different to other marble mines and quarries where the marble is cut out in huge blocks to be used for buildings, statues, work tops etc. Here at Bergtatt the marble is extracted by blasting which results in mostly small lumps and a lot of dust. This is then removed from the mine and crushed to 60 mm (?) to make the paper.

It seems a bit of a waste to me, destroying a mountain to make paper, and then that glossy paper can't be easily recycled! Our guide said that nowadays less paper is used for magazines with everything going digital, so there may not be much demand for their marble in the future.

However the 2 chandeliers in the entrance chamber were made using slabs of marble from the mine.

The post box and info board by the main road are also set on marble slabs from the mine - 

The tours are run in the summer season from May 30 to August 16. NOK 415 for adults. 

See more on the Bergatt page, where there are lots of photos and also videos.

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Just to the north of the Bergtatt marble mine is the Visnes marble quarry. 

This is an open pit quarry. See more on their website.