Gold mine buildings, Pirkanmaa, Finland (Part 1)

Visited 29.5.2014 by skkye. This mine was built in 1935. Originally it was an iron ore mine but its profitability was weak from the very beginning. Therefore it was almost shut down until turned out there was also gold in the ore. In its heyday the mine produced 400 kg gold in a year and in 1952 Summer Olympics (which were held in Helsinki) all the gold medals were made of this mine's gold.
   In 1960 the mine was closed for multiple reasons. A fire had caused severe damages to buildings and the mining methods and machines had turn out to be outdated and ineffective anyway. In 1970 there was a try to turn the place to a mining museum, an water park and a gold panning area but the project fizzled because of the remote location, lack of money and inept marketing. After removing the pumps the mining shaft slowly became filled with runoff and ground water.
   The mining shafts filled with water tempted sports divers to the place and it became a famous diving spot. There was also tragedies - between years 1987 and 1993 four divers drowned in the mine. In 1997 diving there was banned since a mining company wanted to pump all the water away and make some trial quarryings. They hoped to find more gold. The pumping began in August 1997 and it was supposed to take at least three months (there was approximately 700 million liters of water in the mine). After all, the world market price for gold crashed in 1998 and project's international funding discontinued. The mining company decided to finish the project.
   Water filled the mine again and divers came back in 2009. Today the area lies almost abandoned - there is still some prospecting for minerals going on. A Swedish mining company has the right of appropriation.