This volume of the National Atlas of Sweden shows the contribution made by mining and metalworking to Sweden’s welfare over the centuries. Competition from abroad has been met with quality, inventiveness and enterprise. Even today, ore and special steels are among Sweden’s most important export products – more steel is being produced in Sweden than ever before.

The history of metalworking in Sweden goes back at least 4,500 years. Traces of this activity are preserved in slag deposits and the remains of furnaces. The very landscape also testifies to the long history of mining and metalworking in place names, abandoned pits, and buildings and whole communities established around mines and metalworking.

The greater part of the atlas deals with iron and steel. Other sections deal with other metals, in particular the lead, gold and silver of the sulphide ores of the Skellefte field.