The Băița mine is a large

open pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

mine in the northwest of

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

Bihor County Bihor County () is a county ( județ) in western Romania. With a total area of , Bihor is Romania's 6th largest county geographically and the main county in the historical region of Crișana. Its capital city is Oradea. Toponymy The origin of ...

, close to

Ștei Ștei ( hu, Vaskohsziklás) is a town in Bihor County, Crișana, Romania. Between 1958 and 1996, it was named ''Dr. Petru Groza'', after the Romanian socialist leader who died in 1958. History The town was founded in 1952, near a village of ...

, southeast of

Oradea Oradea (, , ; german: Großwardein ; hu, Nagyvárad ) is a city in Romania, located in Crișana, a sub-region of Transylvania. The county seat, seat of Bihor County, Oradea is one of the most important economic, social and cultural centers in the ...

and northwest of the capital,

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

. Băița represents the largest

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

reserve in Romania having estimated reserves of 90 million tonnes of ore grading 0.5% uranium metal. The Băița mine

reserve represents the largest surface uranium deposit in the world.

History

Sovromcuarț was a

SovRom The SovRoms (plural of ''SovRom'') were economic enterprises established in Romania following the communist takeover at the end of World War II, in place until 1954–1956 (when they were dissolved by the Romanian authorities). In theory, SovRo ...

(a Soviet-Romanian joint venture established on Romanian territory during the

Soviet occupation of Romania The Soviet occupation of Romania refers to the period from 1944 to August 1958, during which the Soviet Union maintained a significant military presence in Romania. The fate of the territories held by Romania after 1918 that were incorporated int ...

) which started its operations in 1950 at the Băița mine, under a name that was meant to conceal the true object of its activity. Its initial workforce consisted of 15,000

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

s; after most of them died of radiation poisoning, they were replaced by local villagers, who were completely unaware of the fact that they were working with radioactive material. Almost two thousand miners were working day and night, in four shifts; there was no concern for labor safety or environmental protection.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baita Mine Uranium mines in Romania