**12. Hungarian uranium mining after World War II**

The first prospecting for uranium ores started in 1952 with Soviet participation. During airborne and surface radiometry in the western part of the Mecsek Mts., the Mecsek deposit of sedimentary ore deposit was found in 1954. The first shafts in this area were placed in 1955 and 1956. In 1956, the Soviet-Hungarian uranium joint venture was dissolved and uranium production from this ore deposit became the sole responsibility of the Hungarian state. Uranium in the Mecsek deposit was mined from 1956 to 1997. Total production of uranium from this ore deposit was about 21,000 t U. The uranium ore in the Mecsek deposit occurs in Upper Permian sandstones that may be thick as 600 m. The sandstones were folded into the Permian-Triassic anticline of the Mecsek Mts. The thickness of ore-bearing sandstone varies from 15 to 90 m. The ore minerals are represented by uraninite, coffinite, pyrite and marcasite.

Russian nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants in the former Eastern Bloc was mined in East Germany (GDR) and Czechoslovakia. The total production of uranium ores in GDR from 1946 to 2012 was 219,626 t U. In Czechoslovakia, total uranium production from 1945 to 2017 was 112,250 t U. Some small amount of uranium ores after World War II was mined also in

History of Uranium Mining in Central Europe http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.71962 17

In the Czech Republic and East Germany, the exploration activities for uranium mineralisation were stopped between 1990 and 2004. In the Slovak Republic, Poland and Hungary, some small exploration activities on uranium mineralisation were provided between 2012 and 2014. Potential possibility of future exploration and mining of uranium ores is in the Central European countries recently blocked by various environmental and civil activities.

This work was carried out thanks to the support of the long-term conceptual development

Institute of Rock Structure and Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic,

[1] Klaproth MH. Chemical investigation of uranium, some new metal material. Chemische

[2] Kirchheimer F. Uranium and its History. Stuttgart: E Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuch-

[3] Vysoký A. About uranium, uranium minerals and uranium yellow's. Živa. 1860;**8**:25-30

[4] Schwanker RJ, Eigenstetter M, Laubinger R, Schmidt M. Uranium as colour in glass and

[5] von Philipsborn H, Geipel R. Uranium colours, uranium glass, uranium glaze, radiometrical, technical, historical. Schriftenreihe Bergbau und Idustriemuseums Ostbayern

glaze. Physik in Unserer Zeit. 2005;**36**:160-167 (in German)

Poland (650 t U) and Hungary (21,000 t).

**Acknowledgements**

**Author details**

Prague, Czech Republic

(in Czech)

2005;**46**:1-159

Miloš René

**References**

research organisation RVO: 67985891.

Address all correspondence to: rene@irsm.cas.cz

Annalen. 1789;**2**:387-403 (in German)

handlung; 1963. 380 p (in German)

Since 2006, four uranium exploration project areas were covered by seven exploration licences (Mecsek, Bátaszék, Dinnyeberki and Máriakéménd). Only the Mecsek project, where new geological model of the Mecsek uranium deposit was established, remains active. Following recent resource estimate re-evaluation, 17,946 t U is now reported as in situ high-cost inferred resources. Large-scale remediation activities in the area of the Mecsek uranium deposit were provided from 1998 to 2008 [31].
