"As Christmas Eve and birthday at the same time."

34-year-old Elias Örnberg works as administrator at the Mineral Information Office in Malå, or the drill core archive as it is called in the public mouth. The archive is owned by the Swedish Geological Survey (SGU) which is the authority for questions about mountains, soil and groundwater in Sweden. Elias enjoys both work and colleagues.

The Borrkärne archive contains projecting data from both the state and private companies and represents over four million metres of drill cores.

"The colleagues in my industry are passionate about the job and that’s something I’m going on. It’s a very fun job," says Elias, who has been working as a manager for a couple of years. After the IT program in high school in Lycksele, he returned to the hometown and jumped between different jobs before he started in the current industry, where he enjoyed very well.

Currently, 13 people work at Malåkontoret, including 9 employees and 4 project employees. The tasks vary but are primarily responsible Elias for the drill core archive, housed in three rooms on a surface of nearly 10,000 square meters above ground. A small part of Elijah’s working time is placed on the paper archive, which has largely been digitized. Right now, there is high pressure on the drill core archive that has been almost fully booked since the end of the year.

Like Christmas and birthday

"At this pace, we will receive as many visitors in six months as we had all last year," he said. Elias explains that scientists and prospectors visit the archive.

The prospectors use the mapping room for surveys of their own drill cores, but can also go through earlier materials to find out which minerals are found in the soil. A geologist can walk through meters by meter to map the rocks and minerals a drill hole contains and accurately predict how it looks in a exploration area.

"When they find something, it’s like Christmas and birthday at the same time. So it’s a lot of fun and me and Emil are very busy," says Elias, who adds that to the highlights of the job also belongs to exhibiting fairs a few times a year, both domestic and foreign.

A growing workplace

At the national level, 300 employees work at the agency, including in areas such as IT, HR and purchasing, and more employees are regularly hired. In Malå, people in different areas are welcome to come and work. Elias tells us that the Malåkontoret is open during the week and regularly receives the greeting of people who are curious about what they do.

Living and working in Malå has several advantages. The chief, says Elias, is not to commute. In larger cities, a lot of valuable time goes to and from work.

It only takes five to six minutes for me to go walk to work. Since I have such great colleagues and work in a small office where everyone is helped is a big advantage. It makes the job so much easier.

Everyone knows everyone

Another important advantage of Malå is that everyone knows everyone, says Elias, who has a rich social life and a lot of family in the place where he grew up. In his spare time, he likes to play computer games with friends, clink on the guitar or play pingis. Malå has a rich association life with great opportunities for various sports such as skiing in Tjamstabacken in winter, volleyball or mattcurling. Elias likes to try different things.

"Then I also work part-time as a firefighter, it’s super fun and we’re a great gang. You can go training and have the opportunity to take a C driving license. There are also great opportunities to get a job, as we scream for staff," Elias concludes.

FootnoteIf you are interested in working at the Mineral Archive in Malå, you can hear from yourself, visit, or go to the website where the authority posts up-to-date services.

Text: Monica Wiksten Gideonsson

Photo: www.ricke.se