Mons Andreas Petersen

Mons Andreas Petersen, best known as Mons Petter (sometimes Mons Peter; April 6, 1829 – November 16, 1886), was a Norwegian Sami farmer that discovered ore deposits in Sulitjelma in 1858.

Mons Petter was a Sami farmer from the Skognes farm in Lakså along the shore of Øvervatnet in what is now Fauske Municipality (at that time it was part of the parish of Skjerstad). In the summers, he used to haul timber out from the pine forests of the area around the lake Langvatnet about to the southeast. He had noticed veins of rust in the mountains. In fact, he had found chalcopyrite (a golden yellow copper ore) and pyrite (fool's gold).