Located in the river Tista in Tistedalen, the mill produces 550,000 tonnes per year in three paper machines.

A major revamp from 1907 to 1910 saw the construction of Tistedalsfossen Power Station and pulp production based on the sulfite process.

The company was involved in a wide range of wood processing industries, buying several smaller mills in the area.

[1] The system of privileges for sawmills was abandoned from 1 January 1860,[2] at which time any citizen was free to establish and operate these.

[3] The company was capitalized through the issuing of shares worth 750,000 Norwegian speciedaler,[4] and consisted of all the sawmills along Tistedalselva.

A major concern was the construction of the Kongsvinger Line, which would make it easier for forest owners in Aurskog, Nes and Vinger and to instead sell their lumber to Kristiania (Oslo).

[10] The first pulp mill along Tistaelva was Søndre Skåningsfossen Træsliberi, established by Christian Anker in 1867.

The mechanical pulp mill opened in 1889 with five grinders and annual production of 11,000 tonnes, employing sixty people.

The pulp mill was the company's until then largest investment, financed through a loan of 1.25 million Norwegian krone.

Instead, 250 square kilometers (97 sq mi) of productive forest in Sweden was sold to Borregaard for NOK 4.7 million.

Most of the pulp was exported and director Henry Melhuus therefore proposed that Saugbrugsforeningen establish a paper mill.

[20] The price of pulp doubled during the First World War, but so did many of the costs, including a 250 percent increase in wages.

The rest of the 1920s remained difficult period for the company, with low margins and highly fluctuating but steadily falling export.

[31] During the Second World War, from 1940 to 1945, the authorities required the mill to shift its pulp production to feed.

The entire country lacked fossil fuels, causing electric boilers to be installed to produce steam for the paper machines.

[33] A major upgrade to the plant took place in the period after 1950, following General Director O. T. Jarlsby's ten-year plan.

A breakthrough occurred when it was established that lumber did not have to be air-dried for two years before being made to pulp, freeing up a storage site at Veden which had stored up to one million logs.

PM1 was converted to produce fine grade paper based on pulp from birch and spruce.

The first major environmental concern was air pollution, with Halden experiencing the highest sulfur oxide content of any Norwegian town.

Tista drains into Iddefjord, which is narrow and has a threshold at its mouth, severely limiting the flow of water into Skagerrak.

NOK 212 million were invested between 1975 and 1978, involving a collection system for sulfite waste, a new chemical treatment plant, two external sedimentation pools and two electric boilers.

[45] Per Ethold was hired as chief executive officer in 1977 and started the process of modernizing the mill.

By 1981 all auxiliary production mills were closed, including fine-grade paper, sulfite pulp and sawed wood.

The number of lumberjacks in the mill's 360 square kilometers (140 sq mi) of forest had dropped to fifty and the work largely carried out using harvesters.

The last log driving took place in 1982—better roads and cumbersome operations due to the number of locks made trucks more profitable.

Saugbrugsforeningen was therefore forced to import from further afield, including Denmark, Poland, Germany and for periods also from Canada, Russia and the Baltic.

[58] Norske Skog's board decided in December 1990 to close the sulfite pulp mill and build a new magazine paper machine, PM6.

The decision to terminate cellulose production was both caused by the environmental impact as well as by a steady diminishing demand for chemical pulp.

[60] Originally PM6 was proposed to produce light weight coated paper, but after Stora bought the technological partner Feldmühle, PM6 had to revert to supercalender.

[60] By 1995 PM6 set a world record of 1,626 meters (5,335 ft) per minute and the mill as a whole produced 523,000 tonnes and had a profit of NOK 700 million.