Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Romanian gold mine locomotive, 1929


At a place called Rosia Montana, obviously battery powered as were most mining locomotives. The overhead wire is probably for internal lighting; a loco current collector from it would take the form of a pole.

The rich mineral resources of the area have been exploited at least since Roman times and there are Roman remains in the area. The mine was run by the state from 1948 to 2006.  Gabriel Resources of Canada want to replace it with a new mine and this caused controversy over the destruction of Roman remains and on fears of a repeat of the cyanide pollution at Baia Mare, Romania in 2000.

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