demand for currency to pay for luxury goods from China, where the Portuguese built Macau in 1555, and the Far East. So, when admiral Ove Gjedde returned from a long journey 1618-1622 from Ceylon and India where he had established a trading outpost at Trankebar, now Tharangambadi, on the Coromandel Coast of south-eastern India, as part of Christian IV's plans to build a Danish East India Company, Gjedde was sent to Norway to develop the mining industry. And it was Gjedde who re-started silver mining in the area proper in 1623, which in the following year, when King Christian IV came to Norway to visit and also founded the town of Kongsberg, by royal charter were formally established as Kongsberg Sølvverk. The King's Mine () was the largest mine at Kongsberg. The operation of the plant reached its peak in the 1770s when over 4,000 people were directly involved in the production. The 1750s, 1760s and 1770s were the heyday of the silverworks. Significant new ore discoveries were made, especially in the 1830s and 1860s. The particularly rich King's mine was operated to a depth of over 1,000 meters. The plant extracted silver right up until the closure in 1957. Norwegian Mining Museum At Norwegian Mining Museum in Kongsberg, visitors can board the mining train which takes them through the 2,300 metres of the Christian VII Adit. The bottom of the mine is 1,070 metres below the surface, which corresponds to 560 metres below sea level. Since its closure in 1957, the silver mine has been preserved. Some 40,000 visit the museum annually. The tour includes the first man engine in Kongsberg in action. The room now known as the Banquet Hall of the King's Mine was originally intended as an emergency storage space for the National Archives of Norway, constructed in 1943 and held 2,000 shelf-metres of documents and books. References Other Sources Helleberg, Odd Arne (2000) Kongsberg sølvverk 1623–1958: kongenes øyensten – rikenes pryd (Kongsberg : Sølvverkets venner) Sølvverkets virkelige historie må fram før 400-års jubileet: https://www.laagendalsposten.no/meninger/solvgruvene/historie/solvverkets-virkelige-historie-ma-fram-for-400-ars-jubileet/o/5-64-789908 External links Norsk Bergverksmuseum website Silver mines in Norway Underground mines in Norway Tourist attractions in Viken 1623 establishments in Norway Monarchy and money