THE COMPANY Kremnica Gold, which would like to renew gold mining in the Kremnica mines, has opened a mining museum in the Andrej Gallery in the locality of Šturec over Kremnica. In the first stage, 610 metres of horizontal mining galleries and corridors have been made accessible.
They contain exhibits showing gold mining in Kremnica between the 17th and 20th century. The tour lasts for about an hour and a half, the SITA newswire wrote.
“Gradually, we want to show visitors the development of the technology of the transport of ore in the mine, lights, miners’ instruments, and also to create sites for physically adventuresome tourists,” Dušan Roob of Kremnica Gold told SITA.
According to Roob, the Andrej Gallery which dates from 1982, is the only well-preserved mining facility in Kremnica, suitable for a museum both from a technological point of view, and also out of concern for visitors’ safety. It is unique because it crosses mining galleries (or tunnels) from the 19th and even from the 16th century, as for example the Roth or Klinger galleries.
The head of Kremnica Gold, Boris Bartalský, said that the impulse for founding the museum was the request of Kremnica inhabitants and visitors. This town, in spite of its rich mining history, has never had such a museum.
The Kremnica Gold company has not given up the idea of reviving the gold mining in the Šturec locality, although it failed get the necessary license for the original project, and although Kremnica inhabitants and town council are against it. According to Bartalský, the company is preparing to submit a new mining plan.
“There are 30 tonnes of gold here, and 20 tonnes of that are extractable. I am convinced that the mining will be resumed," he said.
Underground mining ceased in Kremnica in 1970, as did opencast mining in 1992.
