2-969-823 - /Heritage Images

Lead Mine and Cryolite, in Arksul [sic] Ford, 1856. '...Evigtok...in Arksuk [Arsuk] Fiord, with the miners' houses, smithy, store-house...and the lead ore being wheeled over the ice to the ship...the Danish Government...granted permission to a Danish Association...to explore and work mines...giving them the monopoly of all mines and mineral wealth they should discover for a term of years...an expedition was sent out...under the charge of Mr. Tayler, who...commenced working the vein of silver-lead ore...Arksuk Fiord is well known to mineralogists as being the only spot in the world in which the mineral cryolite has been found. It is described as a white mineral, consisting of sodium aluminum and fluorine, and will probably be extensively used in the manufacture of the new and beautiful metal aluminium so soon as a practical method of obtaining this metal shall have been discovered'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.