site.btaExhibition in Kremikovtsi Shows Transformation of Mine Complex

An exhibition entitled Ruda [Ore] will be opened on the lawn near the abandoned open-pit mine complex in Kremikovtsi, said the organizers on Tuesday.

With the exhibition, researcher Slava Savova explores the transformation of the mine from a symbol of industrial progress and exploitation of nature into a thriving ecosystem, telling stories of unsuspected reclamation and life beyond industrialization.

The exploitation of the open-pit Kremikovtsi mine began in the late 1950s after studies estimated that nearly 250,000,000 t of iron ore lay beneath the village of Kremikovtsi. In the following years, the village population was forced to leave and move to the east, and in the valley south of it, and a huge metallurgical plant went under construction to utilize the deposits of iron ore mined nearby, the organizers recalled. As the mine spiraled downward, it was obvious that there was not enough ore for the steel plant that was already built.

The organizers said that in the years after 1989 the Kremikovtsi steel works privatized and subsequently liquidated, the metallurgical facilities were handed over for scrap, and the workshop buildings were almost completely destroyed. After the mine's drainage system shut down, the open pit began to turn into a deep lake.

"The exhibition traces the imperceptible process of unplanned reclamation that gradually incorporates the mine's horizons through the naturally rising groundwater, through the plants and aquatic, terrestrial and avian inhabitants that find refuge on the walls of the pit," the organizers emphasised.

After its opening, the exhibition can be seen in the lobby of the Kremikovtsi Municipal Library until April 30.

Slava Savova is a researcher at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and a member of the European Society for Environmental History.