The Raduša Mine ( mk, Рудник „Радуша“) was a former

chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...

ore mine located 18 kilometers northwest of the city of Skopje. It served as a crucial source of

for Yugoslavia. A

mining colony Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic viab ...

was created around the mine, which is still managed as a separate administrative unit under the name Rudnik Raduša. The mine operated under the framework of the Chemico-Electrometallurgical Combine „Jugokrom“.

Outline

The Raduška massif is the largest (approx. ) and is considered the most ore-bearing. Its submontane section is dominated by dunites and harzburgites, where the most significant ore bodies are found. The central zone of the massif is composed of harzburgites and

lherzolite Lherzolite is a type of ultramafic igneous rock. It is a coarse-grained rock consisting of 40 to 90% olivine along with significant orthopyroxene and lesser amounts of calcic chromium-rich clinopyroxene. Minor minerals include chromium and alu ...

s, where chromium mineralisation is insignificant. In the upper section, the dunites are more altered, and mineralisation is more present. The chromite ore bodies are associated with dunites and exhibit simple mineralisation. The total ore reserves amount to 649,905 metric tons.Ristovski, Blaže, ed. (2009). "Radulov". Macedonian Encyclopedia, Volume II (М-Ш). Skopje: MANU. p. 1244. Two notable investigators of chromite in Raduša were

Stanko Grafenauer Stanko Grafenauer (13 May 1922 – 7 August 2010) was a Slovenian mining engineer, mineralogist and academic. He made significant contributions to the field of mineralogy and introduced new measurement techniques in his research. Grafenauer was als ...

(1949–1954) and Kočo Grčev (c. 1962).

History

The mine was not damaged during the

Skopje earthquake The 1963 Skopje earthquake ( mk, Скопски земјотрес од 1963 година, Skopski zemjotres od 1963 godina) was a 6.1 moment magnitude earthquake which occurred in Skopje, SR Macedonia (present-day North Macedonia), then part of ...

in 1963 but all but one of its engineers died in the earthquake. The Raduša mine went bankrupt in 1974. After the mine ceased operations, the mining waste dump site was transformed into Raduša Lake ('Takbol' Reservoir).

Gallery

File:Објект во поранешниот рудник Радуша 2.jpg, Structure of the former Raduša mine File:Објект во поранешниот рудник Радуша.jpg, Structure of the former Raduša mine File:Поранешен управен објект во Рудник Радуша.jpg, Former administrative building File:Објект во поранешниот рудник Радуша 3.jpg, Structure of the former Raduša mine File:Рудник Радуша.jpg, Raduša mine

References

{{Coord, 42, 05, 04, N, 21, 13, 35, E, display=title Chromium mines in North Macedonia Former mines in North Macedonia