The nationalisation of the mines
Mining is an old occupation in the Romanian lands, present in the earliest records of the inhabitants of these parts.
Steliu Lambru, 25.05.2026, 14:00
Mining is an old occupation in the Romanian lands, present in the earliest records of the inhabitants of these parts. A peculiarity of Romanian mining is its diversity, including coal mining, salt mining, precious metal mining, rare and special metal mining. Mining was a profession and business in which both the state and private investors were involved. It gave rise to the development of different professions and is linked to a strong sense of social and professional group identity and local pride.
The communist government, which came to power in Romania on March 6, 1945, passed what is known as a nationalization law on June 11, 1948, that also targeted mines. In 1971, Ion Bică, a former underground communist activist, recalled the takeover of the mines in Gorj. His testimony was included in the archive of the Oral History Centre of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation, along with other testimonies of those who worked in mining and witnessed those times:
“I had the honor of enjoying the trust of the county party leadership at that time, entrusting me with the task of participating in the taking over of the Schela mine that night. Guided by the party organization, together with the party members from that locality, without any difficulties, we took over the mine and it seems like I am reliving the moment when we installed a mine director from among the workers for the first time, comrade Iosif Pop who at first, in the middle of the night, expressed his bewilderment, both due to emotion and this important moment: can he be the director? To which we replied: You are already the director and you will be responsible from now until tomorrow, when other comrades will come to help you, for everything that will happen at this mine!”
In 2001, a resident of the mining village of Roșia Montană, Ioan Cobori, said that he perceived the nationalization of 1948 as a closure of the mines.
“The mines were closed, the people took the stamp mills, which belonged to them, and dismantled them and tried to find work elsewhere. The older miners stayed there, but we, the youngest, went away. I went to Ghelari. I worked there for three years as a miner. From there I went to Teliuc for a year. From Teliuc to Bumbesti-Livezeni, then I went to Petrila, where I stayed for three months, in Petroşani.”
In 2001, engineer Eliazar Dumitraș confirmed Ioan Cobori’s words:
“After nationalisation, people left in various directions, to work on construction sites, in search of work. Others, who did not have this opportunity, being old and sick, stayed at home. Nationalisation was carried out very simply: one morning, an order was given that no one was to enter the mine, because the mine now had been transferred to the state. People were distraught, of course, because of this, because their purpose in life had been ruined. I didn’t understand, even though I was 22 years old, I didn’t understand much except that they stopped us from entering the mine and that was it. I didn’t understand, I didn’t know, because I wasn’t prepared, I wasn’t trained to understand some economic figures to figure out what nationalisation was. After nationalisation, stamp mills were dismantled. Each stamp owner dismantled his installation, took it home and, being made of wood, they used it for other purposes, or even as firewood.”
Nationalisation generated layoffs and Toderaș Brutus recounted in 2001 the worries of people who earned their living from mining. It added to the general feeling of uncertainty and fear caused by brutal and non-transparent decisions by the authorities:
“People went to work, the stamp mills were in operation, they went to bed and in the morning they woke up to find out that the nationalisation had been carried out. And it hit them like a bolt of lightning. There had been no wind of this. And then a statement was issued saying that no one was allowed to enter the mine. Everyone went away, taking their tools with them. A guard system was set up next to the Roşia Montană Mining Company to supervise things. People went, they took their tools out of the mine, everyone who had them there. They were allowed to wash whatever they found in stamp mills and turn it into gold. But the water to be used by the stamp mills was discontinued, so people could not use the metal. People were very worried, they had children, they had maintenance costs and other things to pay, everyone was asking themselves What are we going to do?!”
After 1989, after the fall of the communist regime, the much hated nationalisation laws were abolished, but mining remained state property. As an industry, mining is much reduced today, and its future is still to be decided.
