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Băița mine
Location
	Băița mine Location in Romania
Location	Nucet
Commune	Bihor County
Country	Romania
Coordinates	46°28′48″N 22°37′42″E / 46.48000°N 22.62833°E
Production
Products	Uranium
Production	0.1 tonnes of uranium
Financial year	2008
History
Opened	1955
Owner
Company	CNU

The Băița mine is a large open pit mine in the northwest of Romania in Bihor County, close to Ștei, 123 km (76 mi) southeast of Oradea and 737 km (458 mi) 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]

References

^ ^a ^b Gavrilă, Mariana (2009-05-30). "Minereul radioactiv din Apuseni a contribuit la bomba atomică sovietică" [The radioactive ore from the Apuseni Mountains contributed to the Soviet atomic bomb]. www.ziua.net (in Romanian). Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved 2009-05-30.
^ Banu, Florian (2005), "Uraniu românesc pentru "marele frate"" [Romanian Uranium for the "Big Brother"], Dosarele Istoriei (in Romanian), vol. 9, pp. 28–29
^ Cioroianu, Adrian (2005), Pe umerii lui Marx. O introducere în istoria comunismului românesc [On the Shoulders of Marx. An Incursion into the History of Romanian Communism] (in Romanian), Bucharest: Editura Curtea Veche, p. 70, ISBN 973-669-175-6
^ Khrushchev, Sergei; Khrushchev, Nikita (2004). Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev. University Park: Pennsylvania State University. p. 720. ISBN 978-0-271-02332-8.
^ "Children of Uranium". uraniumfilmfestival.org. International Uranium Film Festival. Retrieved August 21, 2022.

[Băița-1] Gavrilă, Mariana (2009-05-30). "Minereul radioactiv din Apuseni a contribuit la bomba atomică sovietică" [The radioactive ore from the Apuseni Mountains contributed to the Soviet atomic bomb]. www.ziua.net (in Romanian). Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved 2009-05-30.

[2] Banu, Florian (2005), "Uraniu românesc pentru "marele frate"" [Romanian Uranium for the "Big Brother"], Dosarele Istoriei (in Romanian), vol. 9, pp. 28–29

[3] Cioroianu, Adrian (2005), Pe umerii lui Marx. O introducere în istoria comunismului românesc [On the Shoulders of Marx. An Incursion into the History of Romanian Communism] (in Romanian), Bucharest: Editura Curtea Veche, p. 70, ISBN 973-669-175-6

[4] Khrushchev, Sergei; Khrushchev, Nikita (2004). Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev. University Park: Pennsylvania State University. p. 720. ISBN 978-0-271-02332-8.

[5] "Children of Uranium". uraniumfilmfestival.org. International Uranium Film Festival. Retrieved August 21, 2022.

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