Mining was, for hundreds of years one of the Bergslagen areas major sources of income, and for a long time the area was one of the worlds largest producers of metals, chiefly iron but also one or more of the elements Mn, Zn, Cu, Pb, Ag, Au, W, Co etc. However, dramatic changes during the post-war time reduced mining and its related businesses up to a point where it almost became extinct, and at the end of the 20-th century there was only a few mines left out of what had once been hundreds. The entire industry had practically vanished.