Longyearbyen: Historic Coal Mine Tour at Gruve 3｜Svalbard and Jan Mayen

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Start with pickup at the hotels and guesthouses in town before a short drive to the outside facility of Mine Number 3. On the way there, you will pass the world-renowned Global Seed Vault where over 1 million seeds from around the world are stored. The first seed bank on Svalbard was opened in Mine no. 3 in 1984. This is where the idea to build the Global Seed Vault on Svalbard started — by storing seeds in the permafrost with no need for electricity. 

Enter the facility and explore maps over Longyearbyen and Svalbard. Enjoy a historic coal mine and listen to the stories and anecdotes of what was the last mine in town where thin-seam production was applied. Expect in-depth information about the town’s history and why some men decided to settle here some 100 years ago. A model of the mine is used to illustrate how the coal was extracted using thin-seam techniques.

Walk through the workshops and see machinery and equipment that was left behind when the mine was shut down in 1996. Put on a miner’s overall and crawl into an old production tunnel and get a feeling of how a miner spent his days. Towards the end of the tour, discover the mine itself by walking almost 800 meters in and entering three different side tunnels.

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