Thamshamn or Thamshavn is a small port village in

Orkland Municipality Orkland is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Orkdalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Orkang ...

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; or is a county and coextensive with the Trøndelag region (also known as ''Midt-Norge'' or ''Midt-Noreg,'' "Mid-Norway") in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County (); in 1804 the county was ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. It is the site of the

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

for the town of

Orkanger Orkanger is a town and the administrative centre of Orkland Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The town sits at the end of the Orkdal Fjord, an arm of the Trondheimsfjord. Orkanger is the commercial centre of Orkland Municipality and it ...

and the

ferrosilicon Ferrosilicon is an ferroalloy, alloy of iron and silicon. It has a typical silicon content of 15–90% by weight and a high proportion of iron silicides. Production and reactions Ferrosilicon is produced by reduction of silica or sand with coke ...

plant

Elkem Thamshavn Elkem Thamshavn is a smelting plant owned by Elkem located at Thamshavn just north of Orkanger in Orkland Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The plant produces silicon and microsilica and was started in 1931. History Copper and Sulfur have ...

. It is located right along

European route E39 European route E39 is the designation of a north–south road in Norway and Denmark from Klett, just south of Trondheim (city), Trondheim, to Aalborg via Bergen, Stavanger and Kristiansand. In total, there are nine ferries, more than any other ...

and is the

Thamshavn Station Thamshavn Station () is a former railway station on the Thamshavn Line, located at Thamshavn, a port area just northeast of the town of Orkanger in Orkland Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located along the present day European ro ...

was the

terminus Terminus may refer to: Ancient Rome *Terminus (god), a Roman deity who protected boundary markers Transport *Terminal train station or terminus, a railway station serving as an end destination *Bus terminus, a bus station serving as an end des ...

of the

Thamshavnbanen The Thamshavn Line () was Norway's first electric railway, running from 1908 to 1974 in what is now Trøndelag county. Today it is operated as a heritage railway and is the world's oldest railway running on its original alternating current elec ...

railway.

History

Thamshavn came into being in 1867 when the local farmer Wilhelm Thams established a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

on the area that was named after him. He and his son

Christian Thams Christian Thams (9 September 1867 – 22 May 1948) was a Norway, Norwegian architect, industrialist, businessman and diplomat. Thams was also a founder and major shareholder of Société du Madal, a Norwegian company which operated coconut oil pl ...

bought the Løkken Mine at

Løkken Verk Løkken Verk (or simply ''Løkken'') is a village in Orkland Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located south of the village of Svorkmo, east of the village of Bjørnli, and north of the municipal center of Meldal (village), Meld ...

in 1904 and decided to build a railway from the

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging *Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun M ...

to Thamshavn where they could ship out the

pyrites 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 ...

to continental

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. At the same time the

steam ship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The fir ...

D/S ''Orkla'' started operating between Thamshavn and

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

. In 1931,

Orkla Metall Elkem Thamshavn is a smelting plant owned by Elkem located at Thamshavn just north of Orkanger in Orkland Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The plant produces silicon and microsilica and was started in 1931. History Copper and Sulfur ha ...

(now Elkem Thamshavn) was established by the

Orkla Mining Company Orkla Mining Company Ltd. () was a Norwegian mining company established in 1904. The company was the largest mining company in Norway in the aftermath of World War I, and was among the world's largest pyrite producers. After closing of the mining ...

to smelt the pyrites to

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

and

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Thamshavn was one of the targets for the

Thamshavnbanen sabotage The Thamshavn Line sabotage was a series of sabotages against the railway Thamshavn Line in Orkdal Municipality, Norway during World War II. There were four separate sabotages, all performed by Norwegian Independent Company 1, Company Linge in an a ...

. Today the mine is abandoned and the railway has been converted to a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...

, but the smelter and port still live on.

Today

Thamshavn still has a working smelting plant that is owned by

Elkem Elkem is a company that produces silicones, silicon, alloys for the foundry industry, carbon and microsilica, and other materials. Elkem was founded in 1904, has more than 7,000 employees and fields 30 production sites worldwide. Elkem has an oper ...

. The smelting plant employs about 130 people on a daily basis, producing some of the finest

silicon Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid (sometimes considered a non-metal) and semiconductor. It is a membe ...

there is in the world. Elkem Thamshavn is also famous for its energy renewal program—one of the first of its kind in the world to use this technology. Today, Elkem Thamshavn reuses 20-25% of all energy used.

References

{{authority control Villages in Trøndelag Orkland Orkla ASA