Metalworking

Some scholars believe that copper mining and the manufacture of copper objects began in Asia Minor. Others maintain that metallurgy developed independently in the Balkan Peninsula because of its large copper deposits. This view is supported by discoveries made during an expedition conducted in 1969–1974 in the Mechi Kladenets (Ai Bunar) area near Stara Zagora, where a rich mining district exploited during the 4th millennium BC was identified.

Research indicates that two major centres of copper extraction and working existed in the ancient Balkans: one at Rudna Glava in eastern Serbia, and another in Thrace, primarily in settlements near Sredna Gora. These centres are associated with the Kodzhadermen–Gumelnița–Karanovo VI culture.

During the Middle Ages, mining and metallurgy in Bulgaria were most developed in the Chiprovtsi area, where Saxon miners extracted silver from polymetallic ores. During the 19th century and the first years after the Liberation, non-ferrous metallurgy in Bulgaria fell into neglect. In 1903, a French company received a concession to explore and exploit the Plakalnitsa mine, marking the beginning of a revival of metallurgy in Bulgaria.

Until the end of the Second World War, the industry remained poorly developed. It was represented mainly by the lead factory in the village of Kurilo, the crude copper factory at Eliseyna railway station, and the flotation plants for lead-zinc ores near Kardzhali and the village of Srednogortsi.

The extraction of ferrous-metal ores—iron, manganese, chromium and molybdenum—constitutes the first stage of ferrous metallurgy in Bulgaria. This process had been known since antiquity and relied on magnetite sands along rivers and wood as fuel. This form of ferrous metallurgy developed around Samokov, where 25 vidni, primitive blast furnaces, and 21 madans, primitive open-hearth furnaces, operated during the Bulgarian National Revival. Primitive ferrous metallurgy also developed in the Nevrokop, Kratovo and Strandzha regions.