The Trepça Mines were one of the most flourishing industries in the Yugoslavian Era. Mostly located in Serbia and Kosovo, Trepça employed more than 40’000 employees at the largest, in the mines and associated infrastructures. In the aftermath of the conflicts and wars of the 1990s, the complex fell apart and the mines are now only the shadow of what they used to be.
In the multiethnic city of Mitrovica, in the Northern part of Kosovo, most of the inhabitants used to work in mining-related activites, be it the extraction, the transfomation, or all the businesses supporting the mining community. Eventhough most of the infrastructures are ruins, a couple of mines are still in activity. Stari Trg is one of those. 20’000 people used to work there, but they are now less than 1’000. Miners, nostlagic of the times when their city used to live comfortably through mining, try to survive with the low wages of the diminished extraction of lead and zinc. At the end of the day, once back in the city, one of their leisure opportunity is to go watch a basket-ball game of their local team named….Trepça.
All photographs © Vladimir Vautravers (www.vhvautravers.com) & Igor Ilic.
