The Kjøpsvik quarry opened in 1964. There is one main quarry which covers the activity. The upper part, Kikvik, about 300 meters northeast of the main production area, is currently not in production.
Annual production rate from the quarry is 850 000 tons of calcite marble and 350 000 tons of waste rock. Waste rock is deposited in an approved landfill by the sea shore.
The city of Kjøpsvik (900 inhabitants) is just about one kilometer away from the quarry. The nearest houses are just some hundred meters away. About 150 meters west of the quarry you find the water reservoir (round buildings). Just south-east of the quarry you find the main road RV 827. The surrounding area is very popular for hiking and recreation during the whole year.
The quarry in Kjøpsvik is situated towards the northeastern end of a 4 kilometer long and a 100 - 600 meters wide calcite marble belt, see figure 1.
There are eight active levels in the main quarry: 25, 37, 50, 60, 72, 87, 97 and 108. The Kikvik-part of the quarry has two levels, 228 and 240. No levels are permanently closed yet. The mining plans show future benches which are 10-12 m high. Penetrating groundwater and surface water is pumped out from the quarry. The main quarry area is currently about 0.35 km2 - an area possible to extend, see figure 1.
A biodiversity mapping carried out in 2015 has shown that there are no red-listed species present in the active part of the quarry. Some interesting kinds of orchid were found, for example Gymnadenia conopsea, Dactylorhiza maculata and Corallorhiza trifida.
