Arktikugol

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Arktikugol (Russian: Арктикуголь, lit. 'Arctic Coal') is a Russian coal mining unitary enterprise which operates on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway. Owned by the government of Russia, Arktikugol currently performs limited mining in Barentsburg. It has carried out mining operations in the towns of Pyramiden and Grumant, which it still owns, and once operated a port at Colesbukta. The company is headquartered in Moscow and is the official agency through which Russia, and previously the Soviet Union, exercised its Svalbard policy. The company was established on 7 October 1931 to take over all Soviet mining interests on Svalbard. At the time Grumant and Pyramiden were bought, although only Grumant was in operation. It also bought Barentsburg from Dutch interests. The company retained operation there and in Grumant until 1941, when all employees were evacuated to the mainland as part of Operation Gauntlet. Mining resumed in 1947 and commenced in Pyramiden in 1955. Declining coal deposits resulted in Grumant being closed in 1961. From the 1960s through the 1980s, Arktikugol carried out a series of oil drilling attempts on the archipelago but never succeeded at finding profitable reservoirs. From the 1990s, the company lost many of its subsidies and cut production, resulting in Pyramiden being closed in 1998. The company has attempted to diversify without success.