Shaun O'Boyle Photography

Portraits of Place in the Arctic and Antarctic

Antarctic
Arctic
Portfolio & Book
About

Antarctic
Arctic
Portfolio & Book
About

Coal mines in the Longyearbyen region of Svalbard. Click on thumbnails to enlarge and hover over enlarged images to see captions.

Endalen, Spitsbergen, location of coal mine #5

Coal Mine #5, Endalen, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, in operation from 1959 to 1972

Coal Mine #5, Endalen, Spitsbergen, Svalbard

Coal Mine #5, Endalen, Spitsbergen, Svalbard

Funicular railline used to bring miners and materials to the mine head

Endalen, Svalbard, 78 degrees North, location of one of seven coal mines in the region, now all closed but one. The structures on the lower right are part of a cableway used to transport coal to Longyearbyen, where it was used for fuel, or loaded on

Coal truck hauling a full load of coal between Mine #7 and Longyearbyen, where the coal is burned for heat and electricity.

Vinkelstasjonen, part of the cableway network which moved coal from the mines to the port in Longyearbyen.

Mine 2B above Nybyen

Mine 2B pithead above Nybyen

Coal Loading Bridge Crane, Hotellneset

Cableway used to transport coal, Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen

Coal Cableway Station, Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 78 degrees North. Coal from six differentmines in Svalbard was transported across the landscape in largebuckets hung on cableways. This unique infrastructure is found inLongyearbyen, Svalbard, where co

Entrance to Mine #4

Flat bed rail cars near Mine #4

Nybyen and Mine #2 tailings piles

Mine 2B tailings

Mine 1A on Sverdruphamaren

Cableway on Sverdruphamaren from Mine 1b in Sverdrupbyen, and the old Lonyearbyen cemetary (it is no longer allowed to be buried in Svalbard). Melting permafrost is causing landslides and avalanches of mud and earth like the one seen here.

Sverdruphamaren

Mine 5 in distance with line of Cableway Towers, Endalen, Spitsbergen

Mine 6, Adventdalen, Spitsbergen

Mine 6, Adventdalen, Spitsbergen

Cableway used to transport coal, Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen

Mine #3 and thin coal seam

Original global seed vault deep in Mine #3

Map of Longyearbyen region, gray areas are cross sections of mountains showing the extent of the coal mining tunnels. Each mine has a network of mine shafts covering the entire footprint of the mountain at the level of the coal seam, with multiple e