Autronica Hybrids—Roros, Norway Available to Purchase

Situated to the south of Trondheim and just 50 kilometres from the Swedish border, Roros is a fine example of a small town which found that its traditional industry had come to an abrupt halt and, with that realisation, set to establishing alternative industry to provide employment for the inhabitants and income for the businesses of the town. Curiously enough, it is the industry that had provided Roros with its livelihood since Hans Olsen Aasen first started mining copper in the area over 300 years ago that is the provider of much of the new income. Now one of the 70 monuments on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Roros has become a popular tourist attraction, where the smelting works including the slag heaps and the mine at Olav, which has been preserved exactly as it was the day it closed in 1972 owing to bankruptcy, and the ancient wooden houses of the workers must remain externally at any rate preserved in their original condition. Other new industries include windscreen manufacture, chair making including a novel ‘posture control’ design, a tweed mill and the Hybrid Circuit manufacturing plant of Autronica.