Ivittuut

Ivittuut held the only natural cryolite deposit ever worked at scale, a mineral essential to aluminium smelting before synthetic substitutes, and it was mined from 1859 until 1987, at which point the ore was exhausted and the town was abandoned. The buildings, the flooded open pit and the harbour installations remain. Musk oxen introduced to the area now wander through the empty streets, which is the image most people take away. A naval base operated alongside the mine through the Second World War, when the cryolite supply was considered strategic enough to be guarded by American troops for the duration.

History

About twenty Norse farms stood here in what archaeologists call the Middle Settlement, the smallest of the three, occupied after 985 and thought to be the last founded and the first abandoned. The cryolite deposit was discovered in 1799; the British engineer J. W. Tayler first worked the silver-bearing lead around it, Danish engineers began mining the cryolite itself in 1859, and in 1864 a Danish company was granted a monopoly. In 1924 the town was a stop on the first aerial circumnavigation, where two American biplanes were fitted with new engines; the Danish firm Kryolitselskabet Øresund, which later ran the mine, helped fund Grønlandsfly, today's Air Greenland, and the mine finally closed in 1987, the community being abandoned soon after (Wikipedia, Ivittuut).

What to look for

• The flooded pit - the open working left when the cryolite ran out.
• The abandoned town - the buildings left standing after 1987.
• The musk oxen - the introduced animals now wandering the empty streets.
• The cryolite story - the only natural deposit of the mineral worked at scale.

When to go

June to September is the boat season. There is no scheduled service and charters must be arranged. Winter access is not practical.

What to expect

There is no scheduled transport and charters are expensive. The buildings are derelict and unsafe. There are no facilities of any kind.

Nearby

Paamiut is north, and Nuuk is beyond it.

Key facts