Английская Википедия:Băița mine
Шаблон:Infobox mine The Băița mine is a large open pit mine in the northwest of Romania in Bihor County, close to Ștei, Шаблон:Cvt southeast of Oradea and Шаблон:Cvt northwest of the capital, Bucharest. Băița represents the largest uranium reserve in Romania having estimated reserves of 90 million tonnes of ore grading 0.5% uranium metal.[1]
The Băița mine uranium reserve represents the largest surface uranium deposit in the world.[1]
History
Sovromcuarț was a SovRom (a Soviet-Romanian joint venture established on Romanian territory during the Soviet occupation of Romania) which started its operations in 1950 at the Băița mine, under a name that was meant to conceal the true object of its activity.[2][3] Its initial workforce consisted of 15,000 political prisoners; 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.[4] Almost two thousand miners were working day and night, in four shifts; there was no concern for labor safety or environmental protection.[5]
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