Located on Malmplassen, a vast open court where shipments of copper ore used to arrive and be weighed on a weighbridge before being processed, the current foundry is a replica of the previous building - this dated from 1888 and was destroyed in a fire. When it was closed for good in 1977, the Norwegian government bought the land and buildings and turned it into a museum where the techniques of extraction and melting copper are illustrated with magnificent hand-made models.