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Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani

Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani (SNSK), or simply Store Norske, is a Norwegian coal mining company based on the Svalbard archipelago. It was formed in 1916, after a Norwegian purchase of the American Arctic Coal Company (ACC).

The company has 360 employees and operated two coal mines. The larger one was located in the Sveagruva settlement, about 60 km south of Longyearbyen. The Svea Nord longwall mine has an annual output of 2 million tonnes of bituminous coal. A third of it is sold for metallurgical purposes. The managing director of Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani was Per Andersson. The Sveagruva mine closed in 2017.

The Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani has a shipping port at Cape Amsterdam, 15 km from Sveagruva.[1]

In 2021, the Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani was ranked no. 81 in the Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index (AERI) that covers 120 oil, gas, and mining companies involved in resource extraction north of the Arctic Circle.[2]

In 2025, with the closure of Mine 7, SNSK ceased coal mining in Svalbard.[3][4]

History

Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani was founded in 1916. The Norwegian state, that had owned 99.9 per cent of the shares in the company from 1975, increased its shareholding to 100 per cent in 2015.[5]

Former chief executive officers

  • Hilmar Reksten[6]
  • Einar Sverdrup
  • Robert Hermansen[7]

External links

References

  1. Kjersti Sjursen Lien. Kullbrann slokket på Svalbard NRK, 2011-03-23, retrieved 2015-05-28^
  2. Overland, I., Bourmistrov, A., Dale, B., Irlbacher‐Fox, S., Juraev, J., Podgaiskii, E., Stammler, F., Tsani, S., Vakulchuk, R. and Wilson, E.C. 2021. The Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index: A method to rank heterogenous extractive industry companies for governance purposes. Business Strategy and the Environment. 30, 1623–1643. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bse.2698^
  3. Katrin Haram. Gruvedriften til Store Norske offisielt avsluttet 1 July 2025, retrieved 19 September 2025^
  4. Hilde-Gunn Bye. Svalbard: The End of the Last Norwegian Coal Mine www.highnorthnews.com, 17 June 2025, retrieved 2025-10-12^
  5. {{Store norske leksikon|Store_Norske_Spitsbergen_Kulkompani_AS|Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani AS|2021-05-06|Rui|Ingolf Jarle|2018-02-20}}^
  6. Får penger til å lete etter Kjøde-kaprernes graver [Receiving money to find the graves of the Kjøde hicackers]^
  7. «Vedtar forelegg for korrupsjon» by Rune Endresen, Dagens Næringsliv, 2011-08-27, page 6^