The mining adventure in the northern end of Riddarhyttan- and Bastnäs fields where the huge concentration plant at Hultebo was built in 1915 is a spectacular story. As a part of a large plan to connect a large number of mines in the vicinity by aerial ropeways, the concentration plant was intended to become the centerpiece. The other mines in the Riddarhyttan field had to use the privately held narrow gauge railway that connected the field with the inland harbor at Köping, but the Hultebo plant was connected with the main standard-gauge network at Dagarn. Another part of the plan was to greatly increase the capacity and to create a higher throughput of ore to export harbors by the Baltic Sea.

Well, mildly said, the entire project together with the extensive network of ropeways and the new mine at Storgruvan turned out as a grandiose fiasco even before it was all completed. The ore brought up at the new mine had too low iron content and was too scattered to ever make the mining profitable and t he other mines in the vicinity showed similar problems. Despite the high demand created by the outbreak of World War One, the steeply increased costs and the low ore yield made it obvious that the investment in the huge Hultebo plant was a big mistake. The ore output never came even close to the initial projections.

The post WWI period became a long and painful slope downwards and for several years, all the installations were left dormant. In 1930, all hope for improvements a recovery were gone and the mines at Storgruvan all finally closed, the concentration plant was demolished, the cableways scrapped and the Dagarn-Hultebo rail line was torn up.

Today, the only remains of this amazing venture are some enormous concrete structures that were left after the woodwork was torched. The dense forests have regained the land that was cleared by man nearly hundred years ago and it all now appears just like an abandoned Inca temple (or Khmer ?) in the jungle...
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