Mons Andreas Petersen, best known as Mons Petter (sometimes Mons Peter; April 6, 1829 – November 16, 1886), was a Norwegian

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...

farmer that discovered ore deposits in

Sulitjelma , , or is a village in Fauske Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. Sulitjelma is situated in a lush inland valley at an elevation of above mean sea level, above sea level. It is located on the shore of Langvatnet (Fauske), Langvatnet lake, ...

in 1858.''Store norske leksikon'': Sulitjelma Gruber.
/ref> Mons Petter was a Sami farmer from the Skognes farm in Lakså along the shore of

Øvervatnet Øvervatnet is a meromictic lake (containing anoxic seawater at depth of and below) located in Fauske Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The lake is situated about east of the town of Fauske. Its water is fresh down to depths of . From t ...

() in what is now

Fauske Municipality or is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality located in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Fauske (t ...

(at that time it was part of the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Skjerstad).Anfindsen, Anfind. 1914. En beskrivelse om Sulitjemadalens kolonisering og Sulitjelma Grubers tilbliven. Sulitjelma historielag.
/ref> In the summers, he used to haul timber out from the pine forests of the area around the lake Langvatnet () about to the southeast. He had noticed veins of rust in the mountains. In 1858, he found ore there that he thought was gold. He took his find to the merchant Bernhard Koch in

Venset Venset is a village in Fauske Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. Venset lies on the north shore of Skjerstad Fjord about west of the Fauske (town), town of Fauske and about south of the village of Valnesfjord. Transportation Norwegian Co ...

, who determined that it was not gold based on its weight. In fact, he had found

chalcopyrite Chalcopyrite ( ) is a copper iron sulfide mineral and the most abundant copper ore mineral. It has the chemical formula CuFeS2 and crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a Mohs scale, hardness of 3.5 to 4 ...

(a golden yellow copper ore) and

pyrite The mineral pyrite ( ), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue ...

(fool's gold). The discovery led to the establishment of

Sulitjelma Mines Sulitjelma Mines () was a Norwegian mining company that extracted copper, pyrite, and zinc at Sulitjelma in Fauske Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. Operations started with a test mine in 1887. From 1891 to 1933, the business was registe ...

(), which began operations in 1891. The Mons Petter Festival is held annually in Sulitjelma in late June to celebrate the area's mining history.Dølmo, Ida Kristin. 2016. Mons Petter består. ''an.no'' (April 21).
/ref>

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petersen, Mons Andreas Norwegian farmers People from Fauske 1829 births 1886 deaths