The Bastnäs mining history goes back at least to 1692 and the area is today perforated by a myriad of old small-scale mining operations. The field is one of the world's riches in terms of diversity of minerals, and the principal elements Cerium and Lanthanum were both first discovered here back in 1803.

Except for a few probing operations, no continous mining has been performed in the area since around 1910.
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