The American industrialist John Munro Longyear visited Spitsbergen as a tourist in 1901, where he met with an expedition prospecting for coal.
He returned to Spitsbergen 1903, where he met Henrik B. Næss in Adventfjorden, who gave him samples and information on coal fields.
[1] The company had American administration, but mostly Norwegian laborers, and named the town Longyear City.
[2] Coal was transported the 1.2 kilometers (0.75 mi) from the mine to the port using an aerial tramway built by the German company Adolf Bleichert & Co. of Leipzig.
[4] Following financial difficulties during the First World War,[2] the mining operations were bought by Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani, which was incorporated in Oslo on 30 November 1916.