Ajka Mining Museum

The Ajka Mining Museum of Hungary, located 10 km from the town of Ajka on a hill in the Bakony forest. It lies south along the mountain road to the village of Padragkút. Slightly further south, past Ajka, are the bauxite processing plants, whose tenders slide via a cable car from the new mine on the mountain to the factories.

In this former Ajka mine a catastrophic mining disaster occurred in 1909. Fifty‑five miners died from suffocation by gases. In 1959 the mine was permanently closed because of danger of collapse and outdated mine shafts.

From then on it became a mining museum where one can visit above the mountain tenders, mining trains, conveyor belts, a mine shaft and a replica mine shaft. The machinery for operating the mine lift can also be seen in this museum. In the replica surface mine shaft drill rigs, pipes, large drill heads and other equipment are exhibited.

One can also visit the Rock Museum where all imaginable rocks, precious metals and prehistoric finds can be admired, such as a mammoth bone, anemones, fossils, the petrified remains of a mosasaur and a petrified tree trunk dated to about 5 million years. These exhibited rocks and precious metals, such as gold, silver, opal, amethyst, cobalt, sapphire, etc., come from around the world and are displayed in glass cabinets.

In Ajka bauxite is extracted, which is of significance for the country. Aluminium is produced from bauxite. After Russia and Ukraine, Hungary is the third country in the world with extensive geological manganese reserves. Also in southern France, among other places near Les Baux‑de‑Provence, bauxite is extracted, but production was halted in 1991.

Nowadays Australia is the largest supplier.

The production was initially about 18,000 tonnes per year, but has now, due to a steady development of the mining, already increased to ten times that.