Kongsberg is particularly known for its Kongsberg Silver Mines and its high purity，at the same time, Kongsberg's mine also contains a certain amount of high-purity gold and a large amount of copper, cobalt, lead-zinc and fluorite. From which roughly of silver was extracted between the discovery of the silver ore seams in 1623 and the last year of mining in 1957.The mining volume of the Kongsberg silver mine began to increase substantially at the end of the 17th century. In the 1769 census, the mines employed about 4,000 workers. With 8,000 inhabitants in total, the town was the second largest in Norway, after Bergen (and thus larger than today's capital, Oslo).