Ocna de Fier

Ocna de Fier is a commune in Caras-Severin County, in the Banat region of southwestern Romania. It consists of a single village, Ocna de Fier. Along with the Dognecea region, Ocna de Fier is some of the few settlements inside the global that supported almost continuous mining for some 4000 years. Archaeological proof shows that mining inside the vicinity dates returned to the Bronze Age 1900 to 1700 BC. The principal ore exploited in those instances turned into local copper from the oxidation region of the deposit.

Later on, iron ores delivered about a sluggish transfer from copper to iron mining. Mining became an activity of the Dacians, the historic inhabitants of present-day Romania. After the Roman conquest in 106, mining changed into accelerated within the Roman province of Dacia. At Berzovis a Roman metallurgy faculty, Schola fabrorum, become established, showing the keen interest the Romans had in metal extraction. At Cracul cu Aur Romanian for Golden Tributary north of Ocna de Fier, vintage Roman gold mining galleries can still be seen. They seem like the an awful lot better preserved ones at Rosia Montana Verespatak inside the Apuseni Mountains.