5 villages and hundreds of people lived from former Milicevci mine: What's it like on Miners' Day?

A few decades ago, the village of Milicevci, which is located about 20 kilometers away from Cacak, was one of the liveliest in this area, thanks to a magnesite mine which at one point employed as many as several hundred workers.

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In order to make their heard-earned pay, people from all parts of Serbia came here during the 70s, and at that time women did not lag behind men in taking though jobs. Mirjana Djurovic (72) remembers those, as she says, hard but happy "miners' days."

"My husband and I came from Ivanjica. First he got a job, and I stayed in the village. After a few months, I decided to work in the mine, even though I didn't know anything about it. I worked with other women on ore screening, on a grate. In the hottest weather and in the most severe frosts, in three shifts. The most important thing was the wages which were regular and which allowed us to educated our children," Mirjana told RINA.

The magnesite mine is located at the end of the village, and there used to be a store and a school there. The two-story building where the miners' families lived at the time and a park, now admittedly abandoned, which is located in front of it, testify that it used to be bustling with life here. They slept, ate, drank and socialized and although the work of digging and sorting ore was extremely difficult, after working hours, everyone came out of the pit happy and satisfied.

In the immediate vicinity, there is a former administrative building, which was erected by the first private owner of the mine, who came from France. Later it was turned into a canteen and a locker room, and even today some parts of miners' gear can be seen there, left behind.

"This is now a desert, and only three families live in the building. It's sad when compared to the picture from 30 years ago. Five villages lived off of this mine, with two full buses transporting workers every day. About 3,000 tons of ore were produced here per month and work proceeded at full steam. When I started working here, shovels and pitchforks were used, and then everything was mechanized, so the job was much easier. However, everything went downhill about ten years ago. The mine was no longer at the peak of its strength, and there were fewer and fewer workers," says the mine's former manager, Milisav Damjanovic.

The magnesite mine in Milicevci was operating as part of the Kraljevo-based Magnohrom since 1962. This company went bankrupt a few years ago after a failed privatization. Afarak from Finland bought the most important units of Magnohrom, as well as the mines Sumadija and Magnezit, with exploitation and separation plants. Currently, the mine in Milicevci, which used to feed hundreds of people, is dormant awaiting the next moves by the new owners, as even today there are large ore deposits there.

Magnesite is an ore that Serbia is very rich in, and the kind that is found in our country is considered to be among the top quality in the whole of Europe.

(Telegraf Biznis/RINA)