My private pictures from Seiland

Seiland and mineral collecting

Seiland is located in the north of Norway. It is a big island outside Alta.
Actually the island is divided by the 3 counties: Alta, Hammerfest and Kvalsund.
Today the Seiland National Park is a big part of the island, and as you can see from the video there is a stunning nature and an incredible wildlife with fishes, eagles and a nature that is unique.

Because of the National Park, mineral collecting on many places today are strictly illegal.
The Diopside field in Bumansfjorden is inside the National Park, and it is strictly illegal to collect here today.
This is the field containing Diopside, Grossular and metamorphose Thomsonite.
 

The Zircon field in Store Kufjord is just at the border of the National Park, and the last ones with searching rights got kicked out because of to much scars in the nature. If you ever consider going for mineral collection on the island, I recommend that you make contact with the government officials working for the National Park, of where you can go and where you can not.

The National Park is protected by law, and here is the law written in Norwegian:
https://lovdata.no/dokument/LF/forskrift/2006-12-08-1364

 

It is not only the nature that is protected, but also the natives (samer), their reindeer and so on.
Also if visiting the island always pay respect to the ones who lives here, and listen to what they say.

Also the weather can change quickly, like they say they can have 4 seasons in just on day. The last thing you want to do is to take chances about the weather. Always pay respect to the nature.

 

My father and mineral collecting on Seiland
My father, Gunnar Mathisen, lived on this island for about 35 years, and during those years he got interested in minerals, and built an amazing collection of zircons, other local minerals and minerals from around the world.

All his life he was very connected to nature, not only minerals, but fishing and wildlife in general.

 The pieces I got are back from the years when my father had granting rights (mutingsrett) at the zircon field, and before the Diopside field was part of a National Park. My father always had a good contact with the ones in charge of the National Park, and respected their rules.

He loved walking in the mountains, and respected the nature very much. After searching for zircons he always repaired the landscape, so he did not leave scars in the nature. These are the rules of a good mineral collector, pick up your own trash, pick up others trash, respect the government rules, repair the landscape and love the nature.

My father also loved exploring, so even though he knew where to find minerals he often went other places for the adventure of exploring the nature.

Sadly he passed away in 2016. I'm the son of Gunnar, and I promised I would keep the collection. I'm his son, and with that comes another generation. I love very much what my father did, but I got my own approach. My father built a great collection. My approach is that i rebuilt my basement for showroom. And in addition I make a digital version, so people can view how lovely and incredible mother nature is.

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Zircons from Seiland

Zircons from Seiland is by far the world top for their deep red color with transparent and gemmy areas. The zircon site has been heavily mined in the '80s and '90s, and nowadays it is extremely difficult to collect decent specimens if not spending several days with heavy tools for digging. As written above the field is  also at the border to the national park, so you would have problems for granting rights to do mining. The specimen for sale is from the old days when it was still easy to find zircons.

You can also read more about Seiland and see other zircons on https://www.mindat.org/loc-212041.html

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Visiting Seiland

If you want to visit Seiland, and experience its beautiful and wild nature (not mineral collection) you can visit Seiland House. Here you can rent room for living. But they also offer much more. They  arrange fishing tours, teambuilding tours for companies, dinner and much more. If you want to read more about this, visit them on http://www.seilandhouse.no