There is a long tradition for ilmenite mining in the Rogaland anorthosite province. In 1785 Moss Jernverk started mining ilmenite ore for iron in the Koldal field, west of KydIandsvatn, in the Ankershus field, along the northern bank of KydIandsvatn and in the Kydland field, northwest of Spjotevatn. Reports from Moss Jernverk in 1795 mention: `8 mines in the Egersund district, worth 1100 Rigsdaler'. Up to 1796 some 3,000 tons of ore were mined, mainly by local farmers, and some of it transported by sledge to the coast during winter, following the route Kydlandsvatn-Smievatn-Svåvatn-Nålaugvika. However, Moss Jernverk could not solve the problems of smelting the ilmenite-bearing ore, and mining soon ended, leaving most of the ore stockpiled at the mines.

 In 1861 the newly-founded Egersunds Grube Kompani made another attempt. Since winter-transport of the ore across frozen lakes proved too difficult, a railway was built in 1864/65 going westwards from Koldal to Puntavoll, Hfiland and Skjevollsviken south of_Egersund. The tubs ran down to the coast (about 7 km), driven by gravity, and were hauled back to KydIandsvatn (118 m a.s.l.) by horses. In 1881, when mining finally came to an end, a total of 20,000 t of ore had been mined and exported, mainly to England. It is interesting to note that the miners (between 35 and 60 men) mainly came from eastern Norway and Sweden.

 In the Sokndal area mining started at Blåfjell, about 5 km ENE of Hauge i Dalane. An English company began operations with 72 men working in 8 mines. Another 200 men were engaged in the building of a railway similar to that in the Koldal area. The tubs ran from Veisdalsvatn (106 m a.s.l.) at the foot of B1åfjell along Refsvatn, through Hauge down to Rekefjord, driven by gravity. The last tub carried 'two brewery horses from England', and these pulled the empty train back to Blåfjell. A total of 90,000 t of ore was exported, mainly to Italy and Hungary, during the two mining periods 1863-1865 and 1869-1876. Mines at Florklev Gruve 6 km north of Hauge, Hauge Gruve in the centre of Hauge, and Årstad Gruve 2 km ESE of Hauge, were active for a short period only (Carlson 1945, Dahl 1980).

 In 1902 the Norwegian company Titania A/S was founded, and Titan Co. A/S, Fredrikstad, took over the majority of the shares in order to secure the raw material basis for their new titanium pigment plant. This plant had been built based on a new industrial method for producing a white TiO₂ pigment, today known as the sulphate process, which had been developed after pioneering research by G. Jebsen and P. Farup (Jonsson 1982). In 1927, the American National Lead Company (now NL Inc.) acquired the shares in Titan Co. A/S (now Kronos Titan A/S).

The ilmenite mining at the Storgangen deposit 2 km East of Hauge started in 1916 and continued until 1964. In this period more than 10 million tons of ore containing 17-19% TiO₂ was produced, accounting for 11-13 % of the world production of TiO₂.

 From 1960 the production changed in favour of open pit mining at the nearby Tellnes deposit, discovered in 1954 by aeromagnetic surveying.

 The present mining at Tellnes has an annual production of 500,000 – 600,000 t. ilmenite concentrate containing 44.7% TiO₂. This is 5-6% of the world’s mine production of titanium minerals in contained TiO₂. The Tellnes ore body (> 400 Mt.) is probably the largest individual titanium deposit in the world, containing approximately 15 % of the worlds reserves of titanium. Ilmenite from Tellnes is sold to sulphate process titanium pigment plants in Europe.