The historical significance of the Trepça mine in the Region of Stan-Terg during the twentieth century

• Author: Mustafë Haziri
• Pages: 271-273

271

IIPCCL Publishing, Tirana-Albania

Academic Journal of Business, Administration, Law and Social Sciences Vol. 1 No. 3

November 2015

ISSN 2410-3918

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

The historical significance of the Trepça mine in the Region of Stan-Terg

during the twentieth century

Mustafë Haziri

Abstract

The historical significance of the Trepça’s mine in Stan-Terg is so big, that it is impossible to be

presented in this scientific paper, because of its historic, economic and social character. This

paper analyses chronologically the importance of Trepça mine, focusing with particular

emphasis on the period of the twentieth century where in 1926 the first research that was

implemented by the British government began. In 1930 began the modern exploitation of

Trepça which was followed by some union movements which lasted until 1939. In 1941, Trepça

fell into the hands of the nazi regime of Germany. Other aspects of this work include the

period of the Second World War, when the nationalization of property was implemented during

the communist regime in former Yugoslavia until the great strike of 1989.

Keywords: Kosovo, Trepça, history, politics, economy.

Introduction

Trepça mine is considered one of the greatest producers of zinc in Europe. It has a

long history that dates since the Illyrians until nowadays (Dushi, 2002, 9). It is difficult

to write about the past of Trepça because there are few original sources, especially

during the period of ancient mining and medieval period. The most reliable source

for the ancient period of Trepça is given by Davies (Davies, 1935, 12) with his study

‘’Romans in Europe’’ that described the exercise of mining by the Romans in Europe.

Simic on the other hand gives evidence about mining in this region even before the

Romans (Simic, 1951, 7).

In the written history, Trepça’s name is mentioned in the archive documents of

Dubrovnik in 1303 (Vavic, 1969, 3). In medieval documents this mining town is known

as Trepça, Trepice, Tripce, Tripuza, Trepza. The first miners came from Saxony. They

worked in Trepça until the beginning of the fifteenth century. In 1402 they moved in

the Srebrenice mine in Bosnia (Dushi, 2002, 9). It is not known exactly in what

condition, the Turks found Trepça but it is known that for the Ottoman empire the

gold- and silvermines were very important. Trepça mines were declared imperial

property which were exempt from paying ransom, however Trepça up to 1455 was

considered part of Serbian despot (Kostic, 1985, 45).

History of Trepça during the twentieth century

The history of Trepça is connected with the fight of the most powerful states of the

time with the aim to control this mine. In 1920, the British entered into negotiations

with the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, with the aim of opening new mines

(Haziri, 2011, 14). The British bought the Trepça mining concessions by the Yugoslav